Holy Grail

Holy Grail at a glance

Kind of rule	Joining a move (trend following)
Buys or sells	It only buys. It does not bet on falling prices.
Built on	SMA
Where it was published	TradingView, by its author, as a Pine Script strategy
Tested on	53 cells: 13 coins on 5 chart speeds (15m, 30m, 1h, 4h, 1D), October 2021 to June 2026
Fee in the test	0.12 percent per side, buys only
Middle result after fees, every cell	+13.8%
Cells above zero	53 of 53
Cells that cleared the quality check	0 of 53
Middle drawdown, every cell	0.0%
Page updated	2026-11-08

Holy Grail backtest results, every cell

Every cell is in the picture, not only the strongest. To the right of the black line is above zero. The orange line, when you see one, is the middle.

How Holy Grail 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 only buys. It does not bet on falling prices. It acts only when several checks agree at once. It leans on 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 1 percent of the account. It can stack up to 100 trades in the same direction.

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 is initialised equals off and Use Period Start Date equals off and Use Period End Date equals off.
• Enters long when Use Period Start Date equals off and Use Period End Date equals off and the close is above the open and the close is below the MA Length-period SMA of the close and looking for entry.
• Closes the position when Use Period Start Date equals off and Use Period End Date equals off and the close is below the open and the close is above the MA Length-period SMA of the close and looking for exit.

Buys or sells	It only buys. It does not bet on falling prices.
Tools it calculates	SMA
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 can stack up to 100 trades in the same direction.
How much it trades	Each trade uses 1 percent of the account.
Cost the author assumed	The author assumed a trading cost of 0.1 percent per side.

Default settings

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

Setting	Default	Group
Version
Init Entry %
Exit %
MA Length
Use Period Start Date
Period Start Date	a date
Use Period End Date
Period End Date	a date
Show stats table

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.

This is the second pass. A fee of 0.12 percent per side is taken on the buy and again on the sell. Only buys are counted. If the rule also bets on falling prices, those trades are not in these numbers.

After fees, 53 of 53 cells finished above zero (100.0%). The median of every cell was +13.8%.

0 of the cells cleared a quality check: at least 50 trades, gains that are not one lucky trade, and a drawdown that is real without taking the whole account.

Finished above zero by chart speed: 15-minute chart, 15m 13 of 13; daily chart, 1D 5 of 5; hourly chart, 1h 12 of 12; 30-minute chart, 30m 13 of 13; 4-hour chart, 4h 10 of 10.

Before fees, it sat 19th on a list sorted by average Calmar. That list charges no fee.

Cells tried after the fee	53
Finished above zero	53 (100.0%)
Middle result, the median of every cell	+13.8%
Middle drawdown, every cell	0.0%
Cells that cleared the quality check	0
Middle result, over the cells above zero	+13.8%
Extra, Calmar on the rows above zero. Result divided by the deepest fall	0.00
Extra, Sharpe on the rows above zero. Result divided by how bumpy the path was	0.05
Middle drawdown, the rows above zero	0.0%
Deepest fall, the rows above zero	1.6%
Middle number of trades, the rows above zero	22

Label: backtest · old prices, buys only, a fee of 0.12 percent per side, every cell · Oct 2021 – Jun 2026. Hypothetical results; see the risk disclosure.

How to read the result

How to read the number

The median of every cell is the result of the rule. The author's settings were not changed to help any coin. The weakest and the strongest cells are not a result on their own.

What the number leaves out

The middle cell closed only 22 trades. With so few trades, the size of the median moves when the years change. How many cells finished above zero is the more settled fact.

0 of 53 cells cleared a quality check: at least 50 trades, a profit factor that is not one lucky trade, and a drawdown that is real without taking the whole account. Profit factor means the gains divided by the losses. Clearing the check describes this sample. It says nothing about the next set of years.

The count above is also split by chart speed. A speed that finished higher, in these years, is one slice of the same rule. It is not a separate strategy.

A place on the no-fee list is not the result after fees. The middle number above is the one after fees.

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.

Nothing on this page was fit to the cell that finished highest. One coin, one chart speed, or one strong stretch is a single row. It is not the rule. Other years, another exchange, or another fee would be a different measurement.

Questions about Holy Grail

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 Holy Grail uses

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

• Simple moving average (SMA): the plainest average, and why it still runs half the strategies

"Holy Grail" 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.