Hoping someone can explain how Max. Sys Drawdown is calculated in the AA Walk-Forward report. I used to think it was pretty straightforward. But recently I've compared WF and manual backtest reports and notice some very weird things.
For example, if I do a Walk-Forward test on a trading system using a 1-month In-Sample, and 1-month Out-Of-Sample period, I might see something like the following in the report: Mode Begin End No. Net Profit Max. Sys Drawdown OOS 01/01/2008 01/31/2008 1 10200 -7353 If I manually run a backtest on the above month (1/2008) with the same values for all variables that were used in the WF test, I do in fact see the correct Net Profit for that month as $10,200. However, the System Drawdown never dips below zero. It happens to be a great (theoretical) trading month, and starting from the first trade I am in positive territory. The few losing trades are small, and happen well into the month when I am already far into positive equity territory (e.g. drops from $3k cumulative profit, down to $2.5k, then climbs again). Why would the Walk-Forward backtest should a Drawdown of -$7,353 when a normal backtest with the exact same values shows only positive equity during the entire month's worth of trades? I should note that most of the Walk-Forward backtests appear to match with manual backtests. But there are alwasy 2 or 3 in a dozen that exhibit the above type of discrepancy. Since the discrepancies are huge, as opposed to minor, I am of course perturbed. Any input appreciated.
