Strategy Validator: testing AURORA with costs and realistic fills

What is the Strategy Validator?

The chart dashboard records trade-plan results in R, assuming entry exactly at the candle close and before costs. The Strategy Validator is AURORA’s strategy version: the same signals, run in TradingView’s Strategy Tester like a simulated account.

Why is this step needed?

• Costs hit every trade. With tight stops, commission and slippage can be a large share of 1R.
• Real fills are imperfect. Gaps and slippage push real risk away from the nominal 1R.
• Drawdown decides whether you can stay in. A profitable system with deep equity drops may be unusable on a funded account.

Common misunderstandings

• A good backtest means the strategy will make money. No. It is still a past result, even with costs.
• The default costs fit everyone. The defaults (0.05% per trade + 2 ticks of slippage) are placeholders. Stocks and crypto usually charge a percentage, futures a fee per contract, CFDs and forex mostly via the spread.
• Optimising on all history. Tuning until the whole history looks good is the fastest way to a configuration that only works in the past.
• The Validator does not need the indicator’s settings. With a different Market Preset, Trading mode or Entry Filter Profile, the Validator is testing a different system.

Chart example

Illustration.

How do you use AURORA’s Strategy Validator?

Setup:

1. Add the Validator to the same chart as the indicator, with the same Market Preset and Trading mode. In AURORA Pro, also match the Trading Style and Entry Filter Profile.
2. Open Strategy Properties and replace commission and slippage with your broker’s or exchange’s figures.
3. Sizing: by default 1% of equity is risked per trade, calculated from the stop distance. The Round qty to lot step box rounds to your lot size: 100 for Vietnamese stocks, 0.001 for crypto…
4. Leverage: the Max position notional box (5× equity by default) must match the Margin in Strategy Properties (20% by default). For unleveraged accounts, set 1 and 100% margin.

Fill assumptions:

• Market orders fill on the next bar. Size, SL and TP are calculated from the signal candle’s close, so 1% is the target risk; real risk can differ when price gaps.
• Position split: 50% TP1 + 50% TP2. With the Runner (Pro): 50% / 25% / 25%. These orders are placed as soon as the trade opens. Very small sizes, such as 1 contract, cannot be split.
• Pullback limit orders fill according to Verify price for limit orders in Strategy Properties. Compare 0 ticks with 1 tick or more.
• The Validator sends no JSON alerts by default, because the JSON describes the indicator’s plan, not Strategy Tester fills.

Splitting periods:

• The Backtest từ ngày / đến ngày (from / to date) boxes limit when trades can open. Trades still open at the end close with a WINDOW label.
• The Sample tag box (IS / OOS) adds a tag to trade names.

Reading trade names in the trade list:

Exits are labelled TP1, TP2, SL, or EXIT / TIME / REV / NEXT as on the indicator.

A suggested validation routine:

1. Choose the symbol and timeframe, and set realistic costs.
2. Set the In-sample window, for example the first two thirds of history, and tune the configuration there.
3. Freeze the configuration, switch to the remaining Out-of-sample window, and record the result.
4. Change one factor at a time; compare average R, maximum drawdown, Profit Factor and trade count.
5. Repeat on a few other symbols of the same market type before trusting a configuration.

Limits of the Strategy Validator

• History depth depends on your TradingView plan; less data means fewer trades and weaker conclusions.
• Simulation is not reality: variable spreads, overnight financing, bot latency and news-time liquidity are not fully modelled.
• Out-of-sample can only be used once. If you look at the OOS result and go back to tune again, that period has become in-sample.
• Past results do not guarantee the future. The Validator is a filter for removing weak configurations, not a profit forecast.