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Trend · GLD · 1D

Does Inside-bar breakout actually work on GLD? We tested it

We ran Inside-bar breakout on GLD through walk-forward testing and a 100-run random-entry gauntlet. 3 of 4 unseen periods positive. Beat 87 of 100 random-entry runs.

WALK-FORWARD VERIFIED EDGESTACKER ENGINE
Return +65.5%
Win rate 50.0%
Max drawdown −10.4%
Trades 60
Sharpe 0.94
Equity curve

Equity curve over Aug 2016 to Jul 2026. Hover any point for its value. Turn on buy and hold to compare.

PeriodWindowReturnSharpeTrades
1 Aug 2018 to Jul 2020 +1.6% 0.19 15
2 Jul 2020 to Jul 2022 −1.0% −0.06 9
3 Jul 2022 to Jul 2024 +8.1% 0.76 11
4 Jul 2024 to Jul 2026 +40.9% 2.15 16
3 of 4 periods positive. Mean Sharpe 0.76. Worst period −1.0%.
Market matrix
Edge held on 3 of 28

The same rules, tested on 28 tickers. Edge held on 3. We ship it on those.

GLD SHIPPED
87/100 EDGE
MSTR
98/100 EDGE
XOM
95/100 EDGE
Show every ticker we tested
MARA
67/100 NONE
COIN
51/100 NONE
JPM
48/100 NONE
AMZN
38/100 NONE
META
38/100 NONE
SMCI
38/100 NONE
NFLX
37/100 NONE
AVGO
32/100 NONE
MU
27/100 NONE
SOFI
20/100 NONE
MSFT
19/100 NONE
RIOT
17/100 NONE
GOOGL
12/100 NONE
UBER
12/100 NONE
DIA
11/100 NONE
AMD
11/100 NONE
QQQ
10/100 NONE
IWM
9/100 NONE
NVDA
7/100 NONE
AAPL
5/100 NONE
TSLA
5/100 NONE
BA
4/100 NONE
SPY
3/100 NONE
HOOD
too new TOO NEW
PLTR
too new TOO NEW
The rules
Entrywhen inside_raw 1 bar ago is above 0.5 AND close crosses above yesterday's high AND close is above SMA of close over 200 bars
Exitwhen a signal fires (close crosses below EMA of close over 20 bars), or 10 bars have passed since entry (time stop)
Sizing**Position size:** no fixed stop distance to size against. This strategy exits on signal only. Size by conviction, or add a hard stop for a size-by-risk number.
Diagnosis

This strategy made money overall, turning a 65.5% total return on GLD over 60 trades, but the ride was lumpy. The worst stretch was a drawdown of 10.37% that dragged on for nearly two years, from early 2020 to early 2022, which is where the pain really lived. The win rate was exactly 50%, so half the trades lost money, but the average winner was big enough to keep the total positive. The entry timing shows a strong edge, beating 87% of random entry runs, meaning the specific breakout entry is doing most of the heavy lifting here rather than the exits. The consistency figure shows the edge held up in 3 out of 4 walk-forward periods, so the profit wasn't just from one lucky stretch it showed up steadily across different market conditions.

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Backtested results, not live trading returns. Fees and slippage included. Not investment advice.