Originally Posted by
Cutler'sThumb
I'm doing a somewhat similar thing. First, I'm backtesting all the trends on the spreadsheet for 4+ seasons ('14 YTD, '13,'12,'08,'06). I'm only thru the first 100 trends, but that backtest shows really good results (60%+) for all the previous full seasons, but '14 is only 523-495 so far. I'm keeping a running list of trends that seem to obviously be weak, and I will use this growing list to filter my plays going forward. I'll be curious to see if the numbers stay flat for '14 as I work my way thru the remaining 2/3 of the trends. It seems statistically unlikely, but Nash13 may be right to look very suspiciously at how the trends project into the future.
In the meantime, I've been using the analyzer software to play all non-conflicting trends with small units. This should theoretically be better than the raw backtest, because many conflicting plays are eliminated. Since 1/27 those trends have gone 99-114 (was actually doing OK until the last two days, which have gone 11-34).
NHL has been considerably better, going 79-56, +18.5 units since 1/27. I did a 3 season backtest there that was also positive, but I didn't do '14 YTD, which I will probably do once I finish with NBA. It takes a significant time commitment to comb thru each season for each trend, so I'm just plugging away as time allows.
*I've liked the NHL more all along, as my overall impression of the NBA trends is that we may have too many smaller trends, which allows for more volatility.