HomeTrader provides the backtested data without any representations as to its accuracy or completeness. The backtested data is not a complete system upon which you should base financial decisions, but, passive data which you may use in evaluating your own self-designed systems. The backtested data does not provide financial advice, recommendations or opinions. Any interpretation of the backtested data provided to you that leads to you acquiring, holding or disposing of a financial product or financial service is entirely at your own risk. Neither HomeTrader, its related body corporates nor their representatives accept any liability in relation to the provision of the backtested data.

It is also important to understand the inherent limitations of a backtest. A backtest does not involve actual trading or investing, nor actual investment performances being achieved. A backtest is a simulation of what an investor might have achieved in the past (based on a series of theoretical assumptions) using a particular investment methodology. As with any simulation, the theoretical results will be dependent upon the assumptions made in the backtest, including but not limited to the timing of the execution of trades and transaction costs.

Backtesting is only helpful as broadly a “modelling” tool of what may have occurred had a particular strategy been adopted, subject to the assumptions made by the backtester. In fact, there may be sharp differences between simulated performance results and actual results subsequently achieved by any particular trading programme because of the inherent limitation of being able to model every possible variable into the programme (such as market sentiment). By way of example, if a backtester sought to analyse the performance of an investment strategy  for Internet IPOs on world markets by backtesting data from the so-called “dotcom boom” years in the mid to late 1990s, the strategy would have been seen to outperform the market. Applying the same backtested investment strategy between 1999 and 2002 would have resulted in significant losses.

Backtested data should not be used as a predictive or forecasting tool as to what may happen in the future, past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Neither HomeTrader, its related body corporates nor their representatives make any representations about the ability of the backtested data to assist in producing future returns.