With some delay, here is the July update of the State of Trend Following report. With quite a few changes this month.

Most systems use ATR-based stops/position sizing and most used to be set at 5x ATR – regardless of the timeframe of the signal (ie. 20 to 200 days) – which was not making the most sense. So, ATR multiples are now adjusted in line with the length of the trading signals (for example 2x ATR for Donchian-20, 3x ATR for Donchian-50, etc. – details of the system settings are detailed at the end of the post).

Additionally, I find that a fair comparison should normalize the results between the different systems. The MAR ratio attempts to do this by dividing CAGR by Max Drawdown; and in a similar manner I decided to “volatility-adjust” the performance of the systems in the report.

Normalizing results

A typical adjustment is the so-called risk-adjusted return (or rather volatility-adjusted return), which usually “baselines” the Max drawdown of the systems to a common value, and derive the resulting performance for each system.

Below is a table showing each system performance numbers from 1990 to 2009. Two extra columns have been added to show the “normalized return” and the multiplier coefficient to obtain this return (the multiplier coefficient is itself calculated by dividing an arbitrary Max Drawdown figure of 50% by the actual system Max DD).

 
This should remove any dependency on leverage, position size and risk per trade.

Another change resulting from this normalization is the exclusion of T-bill interest. I initially included it to make the tests more realistic and “reward” systems with a lower use of margin. But this return on margin cannot be leveraged up, so it makes no sense to keep including it when multiplying/normalizing results.

2010 for the Normalized Systems

Below is how the updated systems performed so far in 2010:

And a zoom on the month of June:

And the table containing the final value of each system (rebased at 100 at the beginning of each period) to help read the charts:

No clear global trends stands out in 2010, with the performance of all systems ranging from -15% to +20% so far. This is still very similar with the Trend Following Wizard performances..

June looks like an early peak followed by a dip for most systems. Most volatile is the medium-term Moving Average crossover, which sets both extremes before closing the month even.

Our two star performers from May (short-term Donchian and Bollinger systems) follow along in the peak at the beginning of the month, but their performances diverge at the end of the month, with the Donchian system collapsing to end the month near a 15% loss, whereas the BBO system completes the month even.

Meanwhile the composite index closes the month (and its YTD) at around -4%.

Appendix: System Details

System Rules and Parameters

All the systems were tested with the same simple position sizing rules of 1% per new trade. No other Money/Risk Management rules were used. No slippage was considered and a $15 RT commission applied. No return on margin is added to the system performance

The system rules are detailed on the Trading Blox online documentation.
The MA Crossover system was used with moving average pairs of 10-20, 20-50 and 50-200 days. The stops/position sizes are set at 2x, 3x and 5x ATR respectively.
The Bollinger Band system is the classic use of the Bollinger Bands with entries taking place at Breakouts. The parameters used were 20, 50 and 200 days with 2 standard deviations.
The Triple moving Average system was used with moving average triplets of 10-20-50, 20-50-200 and 50-200-800 days. The stops/position sizes are set at 2x, 3x and 5x ATR respectively.
The Donchian System is a simple version (with no Trade Direction filter) with channel lengths of 20, 50 and 200 days for entries (and 10, 25, 100 for exit). The stops/position sizes are set at 2x, 3x and 5x ATR respectively.

Portfolio Instruments

Covering 60 instruments across Equities, Interest Rates, Currencies, Agriculturals, Metals and Energies, from around the world, the portfolio contains the following futures (CSI Symbols): AD, BP, CC, C, CD, CFC, CL, CT, CU, DJ, EBL, EBM, EBS, ED, EOX, ESM, ET, FC, FEI, FFI, GC, HG, ICL, IND, IRB, JK2, JP2, JP6, JR2, JRB, JSK, JTI, JY, KC, KPO, KTB, KWR, LAC, LC, LGO, LH, LZC, M10, MFX, MP, NG2, NGV, RA, RS, SB, S, SF, SI, SJG, STW, SXE, TRY, US, W, YTC.
Click here for a tabular view with description and exchange information.