Vortex Indicator strategy — on every asset
The Vortex Indicator plots two lines that gauge directional movement: VI+ sums the distance between each bar's high and the previous bar's low, VI− sums the distance between each bar's low and the previous bar's high, and both are divided by the true range over a lookback window. This rule goes long while VI+ is above VI− (upward movement has dominated) and steps aside when VI− takes the lead. It reads which direction's bar-to-bar movement summed larger over the window, not a prediction of a turn; like any crossover rule it lags turns and whipsaws when the two lines weave around each other in a sideways, range-bound market.
Through a sustained one-way move — By construction it holds while VI+ leads VI− and re-decides only when the two lines cross, reading which direction's bar-to-bar movement summed larger.
In a choppy, sideways range — In a sideways range the two lines weave and cross back and forth around each other — it whipsaws in and out, and being a sum over past bars it lags every real turn by design.
Whether that behaviour produced excess return on your asset over your window is exactly what your backtest measures — we publish no profit claims.
How it works — step by step
- • Entry — Go long while VI+ is above VI− (upward movement dominates over the lookback).
- • Exit — Go flat when VI− rises above VI+ (downward movement takes over).
- • Fills, scoring & data — Every backtest fills at the next real open and scores on the real price against a real buy-and-hold, never a smoothed or derived series.
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 47 with enough data to judge, 12 beat buy & hold. 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 47 assets with enough data to judge, the same rule swung from +437 pts vs buy & hold on XRP to -767 pts on Nvidia. The typical (median) result was -52.2 pts — and even across these runs, the deepest drawdown you'd have sat through was -90% on Polkadot.
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.
Vortex Indicator on stocks
Vortex Indicator on etfs
Vortex Indicator on commodities
Vortex Indicator 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.