We ran the popular strategies for real
Eight widely used strategies, each run on six coins under the same conditions. 11 of 48 combinations made money.
Most of what is on this page loses money, and that is the point. This is not a list to copy; it is what the rules people recommend most actually did across seven years of real candles. The numbers come from the same engine that runs in your browser, and every row opens in the backtester so you can rerun it yourself.
Look first at how many of the six coins were profitable. A strategy that only worked on one coin usually found that coin's luck. The median is a more honest number than the best.
| Strategy | TF | Profitable | Median | Best |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RSI oversold bounce | 1h | 0/6 | -89.7% | -80.1% |
| RSI in at 30, out at 70 | 1h | 0/6 | -94.2% | -52.9% |
| RSI with a trend filter | 1h | 1/6 | -7.8% | +5.1% |
| Golden cross trend following | 4h | 3/6 | -4.9% | +165.1% |
| Bollinger mean reversion | 1h | 0/6 | -100.0% | -98.1% |
| Supertrend momentum (both ways) | 4h | 5/6 | +207.8% | +364.5% |
| MACD cross with ADX filter | 1h | 0/6 | -97.2% | -86.2% |
| Donchian channel breakout | 4h | 2/6 | -55.2% | +195.0% |
Data through 2026-08-10 · 0.06% fee and 0.02% slippage per side · 90% position size · 1x leverage
Past performance does not guarantee future results. This table is a record of applying rules to past data, not a recommendation to trade them.