Chaikin Money Flow strategy — on every asset
Chaikin Money Flow measures, for each bar, where the close finished inside the bar's high-low range (near the high means buying pressure, near the low means selling pressure), weights that by the bar's volume, and averages it over a lookback window to a reading between -1 and +1. Above zero suggests volume is flowing in ('accumulation'); below zero, out ('distribution'). This rule goes long while the reading is above its zero line and steps aside below - a trend/accumulation reading of volume flow, related to but not the same as On-Balance Volume (which uses close-to-close direction rather than the close's position inside each bar). It lags turns and whipsaws in sideways markets, and a bar with no range or a feed with no volume carries no information - the reading simply steps aside rather than inventing one.
Most of these did not beat buy & hold — but a real few did, and finding out which is the whole point. This one strategy was tested on 47 different assets. With that many attempts, some will beat buy & hold by chance alone — which is why these are listed neutrally, not ranked by which ones came out ahead. To see whether any single result survives scrutiny, run the out-of-sample, walk-forward and multiple-testing checks on its backtest.
Of the 36 with enough data to judge, 3 beat buy & hold · 11 didn't have enough data to judge yet. Results are simulated backtests over the last ~5 years (less for younger assets), shown whole — losses included — not live or future performance. These are famous names that still trade today. Companies that delisted or went bankrupt aren't in the set (survivorship bias) — and that history isn't available from the free public data this tool runs on — so this rate isn't a representative base rate for every stock that has ever traded.
Listed in a neutral catalog order — not ranked by performance. Combinations we can't judge yet — too little data — are grouped separately below.
Here, “beat” means only a higher total return than buy & hold over this one past window — not risk-adjusted, not luck-checked. The out-of-sample, walk-forward and luck checks live on each individual backtest.
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. This is an educational, analytical tool — not investment advice, and not a recommendation to buy or sell anything. You make all decisions and execute on your own broker.
HYPOTHETICAL OR SIMULATED PERFORMANCE RESULTS HAVE CERTAIN LIMITATIONS. UNLIKE AN ACTUAL PERFORMANCE RECORD, SIMULATED RESULTS DO NOT REPRESENT ACTUAL TRADING. ALSO, SINCE THE TRADES HAVE NOT BEEN EXECUTED, THE RESULTS MAY HAVE UNDER- OR OVER-COMPENSATED FOR THE IMPACT, IF ANY, OF CERTAIN MARKET FACTORS, SUCH AS LACK OF LIQUIDITY. SIMULATED TRADING PROGRAMS IN GENERAL ARE ALSO SUBJECT TO THE FACT THAT THEY ARE DESIGNED WITH THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT. NO REPRESENTATION IS BEING MADE THAT ANY ACCOUNT WILL OR IS LIKELY TO ACHIEVE PROFITS OR LOSSES SIMILAR TO THOSE SHOWN.
On the 36 assets with enough data to judge, the same rule swung from +83.8 pts vs buy & hold on Coinbase to -477 pts on Broadcom. The typical (median) result was -83.5 pts — and even across these runs, the deepest drawdown you'd have sat through was -76% on AMD.
That range is the whole point: one rule is not universally good or bad — it depends entirely on the asset, and with 47 tried, some beat by chance. Shown to reveal the variation, not to pick one to trade.
Chaikin Money Flow on stocks
Chaikin Money Flow on etfs
Chaikin Money Flow on commodities
Chaikin Money Flow on crypto
Backtesting is one stage of preparing to trade, not the finish line. The full discipline runs five: Understand, Test, Stress-test, Forward-test, then Decide — eyes open. Most ideas should die in the first three, and every stage is a place to stop, for free — but the rare idea that survives all five is a real edge you can finally trust with money.
See the five stages →