When strategies go live

[delhin33]

Hello, Im new to automated trading and Ninja trader, but I am a full time trader. I was testing a strategy over 4 months of data (es futures) and Im trying to decide at what point I should test it in live markets? If you had a profitable strategy tested over 4 months(I cant seem to get more historic data than this from esignal) at what point would you consider testing it live? Or does anyone know where I can get more historic data? I guess my main question would be Is 4 months sufficient for testing an automated strategy, or should I be focused more on percentages ect?

Thanks in advance.

[NinjaTrader_Dierk]

Hmm...that's a question hard to answer. I would not know how much backtesting would be "sufficient". I guess the debates/discussions on that issue are legend. You should be able to find references in the web regarding that issue.

[delhin33]

Yeah that does make sense, but just makes you wonder how dramatically different does the ES have to trade for the next 4 months to cause any system that was profitable in the previous months fail. Does anyone here modify their systems every month/6mo/yearly to stay profitable?