Bionan 

Thanks for the reply. Are you speaking about a source for the algorithm? Would it be useful to an individual trader? I'm currently building my own algorithms to have the computer take the trades that I would take as a discretionary trader, but the computer can take them more quickly, more accurately, and without emotion. I understand that institutions are constantly reevaluating their algorithms and updating them. Has that been your experience as an institutional trader? Or do they usually leave them alone until they stop working? Thanks for the insight! Rick

Check it DAILY for performance and required changes if necessary. If you wait to till its not working you lost money.

At least 1 year data should be there which needs to be divided for backtesting and forward testing. Backtest first on 6 months data and then test that strategy on next 6 months data to see if that strategy actually has same curve and parameters as backtested strategy. If its ES or equity futures, intraday times need to be set during european and US sessions with filers for news and speeches. Last 2 years, on every Trump tweet about trade, the twitter algos fire and move the markets upto 1% at times. So many times the price action has been congested with intermittent Trump tweet spikes. I have used a data mining software like BuildAlpha for finding strategies and it has been lot harder to find profitable strategies on smaller timeframe charts than on EOD charts. Once you are done, pl share your backtest and parameters.