A practical, hands-on guide to setting up, adjusting, and trading mechanical systems that requires no computer or programming skills! Here's everything you'll need to develop and verify each stage of a profitable trading strategy, from formulation through testing to real-time trading. Armed with the author's battery of easily accomplished testing and optimization techniques -- many never before published -- you'll design a workable trading strategy, reliably measure its profit potential and risk, and then test it to see if it works in real-time trading. No matter what your level of trading expertise, now you can swiftly isolate and eliminate the causes of trading failure and make the decisions essential to profitable computerized trading. You'll discover: The seven major components of mechanical trading strategies and their uses When and how to use fast, accurate, and realistic computer simulations to evaluate a strategy's trading performance without risking precious capital The best ways to tailor a trading strategy to fit the unique personalities of widely different markets What to expect from a trading model in real-time trading How to judge trading performance with respect to historical testing performance Design, Testing, and Optimization of Trading Systems helps you develop, evaluate, and apply a winning computer trading system that suits your specific needs.