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Need guidelines on backtesting

Hello All,

I'm new to Quantopian and still learning. I was looking for any guideline how to use/ analyze the back test result of a cloned algorithm. Also, what is algorithm performance in blue and benchmark performance marked in red? Any help highly appreciated.
Anin

2 responses

The algorithm vs benchmark performance charts show what would have happened over time. If you had taken your initial capital (which is a customizable setting) and invested it in the market - how would you have done? The red line is the benchmark (S&P500 by default, but this is also customizable). The blue line is how your algorithm would have performed over the same time period. You can compare if your algo would have been above/below the market by running a few backtests.

To begin learning the Quantopian API, I would recommend to try the tutorial series. It'll walk you through the basics and show how to use the built-in functions. Good luck!

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Thanks a lot @Alisa, that was really helpful advice.