DRAWUP

backtested · crypto · 1,315 daily bars

arbitrum, backtested

five classic strategies run on 1,315 days of arbitrum, with fees, split so nothing was chosen with hindsight. every one of them won in the first half and lost in the second.

best out of sample
39.4%
buy and hold
-61.5%
beat buy and hold
4 of 5
made money
0 of 5
the DRAWUP bot holding a glowing coin

the whole table

every strategy, not the winner

arbitrum daily, 2023-03-23 to 2026-10-27. fees 5 bps a side. in sample to 2025-09-28.
strategyin sample out of sampleequity, out of sample
returnmax ddsharpe returnmax ddsharpe
rsi(14) mean reversion -39.7%-70.9%-0.08 -24.2%-55.0%-0.15
50/200 moving average -62.6%-82.7%-0.42 -15.1%-36.6%0.02
20 day breakout -77.3%-77.3%-0.51 39.4%-39.2%0.76
12 month momentum -61.2%-72.7%-0.82 -29.5%-29.8%-0.99
buy and hold -67.9%-88.3%0.00 -61.5%-84.1%-0.36

the in sample winner was buy and hold at -67.9%. picking it on that evidence then cost 61.5% in the window that followed. that is the finding, and it is why this page prints all five.

the bot verify on chain

what ours does instead

the table above measures returns on one asset. the bot is measured differently, so it gets its own block rather than a row: it runs one rule on a funded account, and what it is judged on is whether the account clears, and how long that takes. putting a pass rate in a returns column would be comparing two different things.

simulated, 6,845 starts on real market data, 2024-12-11 to 2026-09-21. not live customers.
pacepassesstopped out average9 in 10 take
the bot at slow pace, walkingslow45%55%50 days10 to 105 days
the bot at medium pace, joggingmedium35%65%25 days5 to 70 days
the bot at fast pace, sprintingfast30%70%15 days5 to 35 days
Basethe draw contract, on Base Pythrandomness by Pyth Entropy 0x3DC37bcb9AfB3F0485bffb3bB8bf608E340a2234

the pace is the risk per trade and the only thing that changes: the strategy under all three is the same one. a faster pace passes sooner and less often, and the stopped out column sits beside the pass rate because we are the counterparty and the bot supplier at once.

reading it

what this says

arbitrum fell 61.5% through the out of sample window, and exactly one rule came out ahead: 20 day breakout, at 39.4%. the honest reading is not that these five are bad, it is that a backtest chosen on past performance tells you little about the next window.

the one rule that came out ahead, 20 day breakout, was in the market 37% of the window. it earned its 39.4% by being out of it for the rest, which is a timing claim that one window cannot settle.

method

how it was run

data
arbitrum daily candles, hyperliquid public api, 1,315 bars, 2023-03-23 to 2026-10-27, read 2026-10-26.
fees
5 basis points a side on every change of position. funding is not modelled, and a long pays funding most of the time, so real figures would be slightly worse, never better.
no hindsight
every decision is taken on one close and applied to the next day's move.
the split
first 70% sets expectations, last 30% tests them. nothing was tuned on it.
missing
one asset, one timeframe, long only, no sizing, no stops.

questions

what people ask

what is the best strategy for arbitrum?

20 day breakout came out best at 39.4%, against buy and hold at -61.5%. 1 of the five made money out of sample.

do these numbers include fees?

yes, 5 basis points a side on every change of position. funding is not modelled.

why show strategies that lost?

because showing only the winner is how backtests lie. fifty strategies across a hundred assets is five thousand results, and the best of those is mostly luck.

if this looks like work

it is, and we did it

picking a rule, testing it honestly, sizing it, then holding through a 84.1% drawdown is most of a job. ours runs one rule at one pace on a funded account, and we print how often it passes beside how often it stops out.

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