TRADING IQ
Raise Your Trading IQ.
Learn what works. See what doesn't. Backtesting methodology, risk management, and lessons from the variations that failed. 280+ coins analyzed.
Week of 2026-07-27: SuperTrend leads, Mean Reversion LONG drops
2026-07-27Updated 2026-09-292 min read
Weekly crypto strategy rankings — 26 strategies tested across top-50 coins.
Does the Donchian Channel Strategy Work in Crypto? We Backtested All 30 Exit Settings
2026-07-26Updated 2026-09-066 min read
The Donchian breakout is the system the original Turtle traders were taught. We backtested it across 50 coins with fees included and swept all 30 stop-loss and take-profit combinations. None were profitable — and the reason is not what we expected: the strategy hits its take-profit far more often than its stop-loss, and still bleeds.
Does the Heikin Ashi Strategy Work in Crypto? We Backtested All 30 Exit Settings
2026-07-263 min read
Heikin-Ashi candles smooth price into clean runs of colour, which is why they are recommended for spotting trends. We backtested them across 50 coins with fees included. Zero of 30 exit combinations were profitable, and the smoothing produced more trades than any of the other three strategies we graded this week — the opposite of what a cleaner chart implies.
Does the Keltner Squeeze Work in Crypto? Fewer Trades, Shallower Losses, Still Negative
2026-07-26Updated 2026-09-054 min read
The Keltner squeeze traded roughly a quarter as often as our breakout grids and lost less than the other three strategies we graded this week — and still returned zero profitable configurations out of 30. Selectivity helped. It was not enough. This strategy was subsequently killed after regime-robustness testing (2026-06-28) confirmed the SHORT edge was bear-beta, not a standalone squeeze signal.
Does Mean Reversion Work in Crypto? High Win Rate, Still Lost Money
2026-07-264 min read
Mean reversion won 61% of its trades and not one of its 30 exit combinations was profitable. Unlike the breakout grids, this one has a clear gradient: profit factor improves monotonically as the stop widens and the target tightens — which tells you exactly what is killing it. Full data, fees included, across 50 coins.
How to Backtest a Strategy on TradingView for Free (and Where the Free Tier Stops)
2026-07-264 min read
TradingView's Strategy Tester will backtest a strategy without a paid plan, but two limits decide whether the result means anything: it runs one symbol per test, and full-history Deep Backtesting sits behind the paid tier. Here is the free workflow, and what to do when you hit the wall.
Does the Supertrend Strategy Work in Crypto? We Backtested All 30 Settings
2026-07-243 min read
Supertrend is one of the most recommended crypto indicators on YouTube and TradingView. We ran it across 50 coins and every stop-loss/take-profit combination we support — with fees and slippage included. Every single configuration lost money, including the one with a 57% win rate. Here's what the grid actually shows.
Crypto Auto-Trading: How to Verify a Bot Before You Trust It With Money
2026-07-243 min read
Auto-trading programs promise hands-free profits, and most of the marketing never survives contact with a full-cost backtest. We run automated strategies on a real exchange account, and this is the exact checklist we apply before any strategy touches money — the same one that made us reject most of our own candidates.
OKX Grid Bot Review From a Team That Verifies Automation on OKX — and Skips the Grid
2026-07-244 min read
Most OKX grid bot reviews are written by affiliates who never traded it. We build and verify automated strategies against OKX through its API — and we deliberately don't run the grid bot. This review explains the mechanics, what other reviews leave out, and why we rejected the strategy class before it ever earned a backtest, so you can judge the reasoning instead of the screenshots.
Week of 2026-07-20: Mean Reversion leads, Ichimoku BOTH drops
2026-07-20Updated 2026-09-292 min read
Weekly crypto strategy rankings — 24 strategies tested across top-50 coins.
Week of 2026-07-13: Mean Reversion leads, Ichimoku LONG drops
2026-07-13Updated 2026-09-292 min read
Weekly crypto strategy rankings — 27 strategies tested across top-50 coins.
Week of 2026-07-06: MACD Cross LONG leads, HV Squeeze drops
2026-07-06Updated 2026-09-292 min read
Weekly crypto strategy rankings — 29 strategies tested across top-50 coins.
Week of 2026-06-29: Stochastic RSI leads, ATR Breakout SHORT drops
2026-06-29Updated 2026-09-292 min read
Weekly crypto strategy rankings — 29 strategies tested across top-50 coins.
We Verified Every Strategy. Not One Beat Buy-and-Hold. (The Receipts)
2026-06-285 min read
Across BTC, ETH, SOL and BNB over nine years — two full bear markets included — we put every strategy head-to-head against simply holding. Not one produced a higher return than buy-and-hold. Here is the full scoreboard, including the one thing that did win — and what 'winning' actually meant.
We Stopped Trying to Beat the Market. Here's What We Found Instead.
2026-06-264 min read
We tested every strategy family in our research ledger — every indicator, every pattern, and the unconventional ones nobody runs: rebalancing premiums, volatility harvesting, carry, regime-switching. Directional prediction: zero edge, every time. But changing the question gave us a real, honest answer.
Week of 2026-06-22: MACD Cross leads, SuperTrend LONG drops
2026-06-22Updated 2026-09-292 min read
Weekly crypto strategy rankings — 24 strategies tested across top-50 coins.
Altcoins Are Less Efficient — and It Still Doesn't Help
2026-06-213 min read
The hope is seductive: majors are too efficient, but small alts are sloppy enough to beat. We tested four liquidity tiers. The inefficiency is real — and the trading cost eats it many times over. The smallest coins are literally untradeable at size.
Are Crypto Trading Signals Worth It? An Honest Answer
2026-06-213 min read
Paid signal groups promise calls that beat the market for a monthly fee. Here's the uncomfortable economics: if someone had a signal that reliably beat the market, selling it to you for $50 a month would be the worst possible use of it. The business model itself is the tell.
Build and Verify Any Strategy — No Code, Real Fees
2026-06-212 min read
Most people argue about strategies. You can just test yours. A walkthrough of building any entry/exit rule from scratch — 13 indicators, custom conditions, trailing or signal exits — and seeing its real expectancy after fees in a single run.
Can You Make a Living Day Trading Crypto? The Honest Math
2026-06-212 min read
It's the dream sold by every trading course: quit your job, trade from a laptop, compound your way to freedom. We won't tell you it's impossible — but the math of edges and costs makes it far harder than the highlight reels suggest. Here's what actually has to be true.