External Signals Strategy Tester v8

External Signals Strategy Tester v8 at a glance

Kind of rule	Joining a move (trend following)
Buys or sells	It can buy, and it can bet on falling prices.
Built on	ATR, EMA, Hull MA, SMA, VWMA
Where it was published	TradingView, by its author, as a Pine Script strategy
Tested on	67 cells: 13 coins, October 2021 to June 2026, no fee
Trades placed	none
Page updated	2026-11-08

External Signals Strategy Tester v8 backtest results, every cell

There is no cloud of cells to draw. The frame below says why.

How External Signals Strategy Tester v8 works

Rules in this group usually work like this. It waits until price is already moving, then joins that move. It is wrong in small ways many times, and right in a large way a few times. The hard part is the stretch where price chops around and every entry is a fake. The next paragraph is this particular rule, which can be narrower than the group.

It can buy, and it can bet on falling prices. It acts only when several checks agree at once. It leans on ATR, EMA, Hull MA, SMA; those names are explained on their own pages, further down. The exact line is in the list below, in the author's names, and you can skip that list. It gets out when another set of checks agrees. That line is in the list below too.

Each trade uses the whole account. It holds one trade at a time.

The exact condition, from the code

Same rule, translated from the code, in the author's names. You can skip this list if the paragraph above was enough.

• Enters long when Reverse on Opposite (off) and a short position is open and (Buy Signal (close) crosses above 0 or l cross signal) and Enable Long (on).
• Enters short when Reverse on Opposite (off) and a long position is open and (Sell Signal (close) crosses above 0 or s cross signal) and Enable Short (on).
• Enters long when no position is open and not (reverse done) and Enable Long (on) and (Buy Signal (close) crosses above 0 or l cross signal).
• Enters short when no position is open and not (reverse done) and Enable Short (on) and (Sell Signal (close) crosses above 0 or s cross signal).
• Closes the position when Reverse on Opposite (off) and a short position is open and (Buy Signal (close) crosses above 0 or l cross signal) and Enable Long (on).
• Closes the position when Reverse on Opposite (off) and a long position is open and (Sell Signal (close) crosses above 0 or s cross signal) and Enable Short (on).
• Closes the position when not (Reverse on Opposite (off)) and Close on Opposite (on) and a long position is open and (Sell Signal (close) crosses above 0 or s cross signal).
• Closes the position when not (Reverse on Opposite (off)) and Close on Opposite (on) and a short position is open and (Buy Signal (close) crosses above 0 or l cross signal).

Buys or sells	It can buy, and it can bet on falling prices.
Tools it calculates	ATR, EMA, Hull MA, SMA, VWMA
A second chart speed	No. It uses one chart speed only.
Only at certain hours	Yes. It only acts during set hours.
Adding to a trade	It holds one trade at a time.
How much it trades	Each trade uses the whole account.
Cost the author assumed	The author assumed no trading cost.

Default settings

The test used the defaults in the middle column. Nothing was turned to help a coin.

Setting	Default	Group
Start Date	a date	Date Range
End Date	a date	Date Range
Buy Signal	close
Sell Signal	close
LONG LINE CROSS	off	Long Line Cross
Line Source	hl2	Long Line Cross
Dir	Below→Above	Long Line Cross
SHORT LINE CROSS	off	Short Line Cross
Line Source	hl2	Short Line Cross
Dir	Above→Below	Short Line Cross
Enable Long	on	Trade Settings
Enable Short	on	Trade Settings
Close on Opposite	on	Trade Settings
Reverse on Opposite	off	Trade Settings
Use % TP	on	Risk %
TP %	2	Risk %
Use % SL	on	Risk %
SL %	1	Risk %
Use % BE	on	Risk %
BE %	1	Risk %
FIBO LEVELS ENABLE	off	Fibo Bands
FBB Length	200	Fibo Bands
FBB Source	hlc3	Fibo Bands
FBB Mult	3	Fibo Bands

and 44 more settings, left at the author's defaults.

How the backtest was run

Every strategy was tried the same way, on the settings the author published.

The years are October 2021 to June 2026. The prices are from Bybit, for 13 widely traded coins, mostly on hourly, 4-hour and daily charts, with some faster charts. That was 47,242 tries. The window stored in the files is 2021-09..2026-06.

599 rules produced a finished try. A rule that finished above zero on at least 12 cells, before any fee, was tried again with a fee of 0.12 percent per side. Only buys are counted in that second try. 273 rules got it.

The method, the aggregate results and a downloadable table are on the study page. What the desk does with the results beyond these pages is its own.

Before any fee, it was tried on 67 cells, and it placed no trades.

It was not run a second time with a fee. That second pass happens only when at least 12 cells finished above zero before fees. 273 rules got that pass.

Cells tried	67
Cells that placed a trade	0
Finished above zero	0

Label: backtest · old prices, zero commission · Oct 2021 – Jun 2026. Hypothetical results; see the risk disclosure.

How to read the result

How to read the number

No cell took a trade, so there is no return to read. The rule above is the whole note.

What this does not show

The useful question, for a rule that joins a move already underway, is what it gave back in the choppy months when there was no trend to join.

There is no cell to single out, and this note does not invent one. Other years, another exchange, or another fee would be a different measurement.

Questions about External Signals Strategy Tester v8

Words used on this page

Backtest

The rule was tried on old prices. No real money moved.

Cell

One coin on one chart speed. Bitcoin every 4 hours is one cell. Bitcoin once a day is another.

Chart speed

How often a new price bar is drawn. 15m means every 15 minutes, 1h means hourly, 4h means every 4 hours, 1D means once a day.

Fee, per side

A cost taken each time the rule trades. Per side means once on the way in and once on the way out.

Median

Line the cells up from the biggest loss to the biggest gain. The median is the middle one. Half the cells did better and half did worse.

Drawdown

The deepest fall from a high point along the way, as a percent of the account at that high.

Above zero

The account finished with more than it started.

The indicators External Signals Strategy Tester v8 uses

Each has its own page: what it measures, how it is read, where it misleads.

• ATR (average true range): the volatility number behind most stops
• Exponential moving average (EMA): what it measures and where it misleads
• Hull moving average (HMA): how it removes lag, and what it costs
• Simple moving average (SMA): the plainest average, and why it still runs half the strategies
• Volume-weighted moving average (VWMA): an average that listens to volume

"External Signals Strategy Tester v8" was published on TradingView by its author, under the author's own license. This page is an independent reading of those rules and of what they did on these old prices. It is not written with the author, and it is not a recommendation. Not every detail survives the translation onto this page, so read the original before you rely on it.