Week 12: Conduct a Final Review and Controlled Trial
Do not move to live trading merely because the 12-week course has ended. First, conduct a readiness review across three checklists.
Strategy checklist
- Are all entry and exit conditions objective?
- Does the backtest include realistic charges and slippage?
- Was the strategy tested on unseen (out-of-sample) data?
- Does it work across more than one market phase?
- Is the number of historical trades meaningful, and the maximum drawdown acceptable?
- Did paper trading broadly support the backtest?
Technology checklist
- Are duplicate orders prevented, and is every order status verified?
- Can rejected and partially filled orders be handled?
- Does the system detect stale data? Are logs and alerts working?
- Can open positions be reconciled with the broker?
- Is an emergency stop available, and can you exit manually if automation fails?
Live-trading checklist
- Start with the smallest practical quantity and a defined maximum daily loss.
- Do not increase size after a loss.
- Keep trading funds separate from essential savings.
- Monitor the first live trades closely and compare actual slippage with the backtest.
- Pause the system whenever its behaviour is unexplained.
Week 12 outcome
You should have a written go-live decision. “Not yet ready” is a valid and often responsible conclusion.
This lesson is for educational purposes only. It is not investment advice, a recommendation or an assurance of returns. Trading and derivatives involve substantial risk, and backtested or paper-trading results do not guarantee future performance.
