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.