backtesting-trading-strategies

name	backtesting-trading-strategies
description	Backtest crypto and traditional trading strategies against historical data. Calculates performance metrics (Sharpe, Sortino, max drawdown), generates equity curves, and optimizes strategy parameters. Use when user wants to test a trading strategy, validate signals, or compare approaches. Trigger with phrases like "backtest strategy", "test trading strategy", "historical performance", "simulate trades", "optimize parameters", or "validate signals".
allowed-tools	Read, Write, Edit, Grep, Glob, Bash(python:*)
version	1.28.0
author	Jeremy Longshore <[e-mail]>
license	MIT
tags	["crypto","testing","performance"]
compatibility	Designed for Claude Code, also compatible with Codex and OpenClaw

Backtesting Trading Strategies

Overview

Validate trading strategies against historical data before risking real capital. This skill provides a complete backtesting framework with 8 built-in strategies, comprehensive performance metrics, and parameter optimization.

Key Features:

• 8 pre-built trading strategies (SMA, EMA, RSI, MACD, Bollinger, Breakout, Mean Reversion, Momentum)
• Full performance metrics (Sharpe, Sortino, Calmar, VaR, max drawdown)
• Parameter grid search optimization
• Equity curve visualization
• Trade-by-trade analysis

Prerequisites

Install required dependencies:

set -euo pipefail
pip install pandas numpy yfinance matplotlib

Optional for advanced features:

set -euo pipefail
pip install ta-lib scipy scikit-learn

Instructions

1. Fetch historical data (cached to ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/data/ for reuse):

   python ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/fetch_data.py --symbol BTC-USD --period 2y --interval 1d
   

2. Run a backtest with default or custom parameters:

   python ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/backtest.py --strategy sma_crossover --symbol BTC-USD --period 1y
   python ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/backtest.py \
     --strategy rsi_reversal \
     --symbol ETH-USD \
     --period 1y \
     --capital 10000 \  # 10000: 10 seconds in ms
     --params '{"period": 14, "overbought": 70, "oversold": 30}'
   

3. Analyze results saved to ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/reports/ -- includes *_summary.txt (performance metrics), *_trades.csv (trade log), *_equity.csv (equity curve data), and *_chart.png (visual equity curve).

4. Optimize parameters via grid search to find the best combination:

   python ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/optimize.py \
     --strategy sma_crossover \
     --symbol BTC-USD \
     --period 1y \
     --param-grid '{"fast_period": [10, 20, 30], "slow_period": [50, 100, 200]}'