Buy a fixed amount on a fixed schedule, never sell. The baseline every other strategy must beat.
Standard retail accumulation method; described by U.S. SEC investor education material. Also known as DCA, periodic investment.
Backed by 2 independent publishers. U.S. SEC — Investor.gov · Wikipedia · Glowwiki — separate institutions describing the same thing from their own material.
Listed as convention, not as established fact.
BTC/USDT +529% · Gold (PAXG) +12%. A rule that wins in one market and loses in another did not find an edge; it found a rising asset. Each figure is measured only against buying and holding that same market over that same period.
| Market | Return | Buy & hold | vs B&H | Beat it | Max DD | Underwater | Grid beat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BTC/USDT | 1059% | 530% | +529% | yes | 76% | 846d | 81% |
| ETH/USDT | 671% | 276% | +395% | yes | 79% | 1382d | 69% |
| Gold (PAXG) | 131% | 119% | +12% | yes | 28% | 634d | 69% |
All figures on this page are from daily candles unless a row says otherwise.
Everything below is the same rules run over real price history. Pick a market to see the fills, the equity path and the parameter grid for it.
49 fills. Signals are taken on the close and filled at the next open.
Everything above uses the daily row. These are the same rules and the same parameters on a different candle size.
| Timeframe | Return | Buy & hold | vs B&H | Beat it | Trades |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4H | 679% | 524% | +155% | yes | 0 |
| 1D ← | 1059% | 530% | +529% | yes | 0 |
| 1W | 570% | 524% | +46% | yes | 0 |
A single return is one chosen start date. These are 95 runs of the same rules with the start shifted forward 30 days at a time.
| Worst | p10 | p25 | Median | p75 | p90 | Best | Losing starts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -50.9% | -34.5% | -10.9% | 25.4% | 56.2% | 99.9% | 382.0% | 33% |
The headline above uses one parameter setting. Here is every setting tested: 16 combinations, median 793.2%, best 1243.5%, worst 422.1%. 13 of them beat buy & hold.
DCA run across its own parameter range over the full period. The same rules flip from profit to loss depending only on the numbers you picked — which is why a single headline return is meaningless on its own.
| intervalBars 1 | intervalBars 7 | intervalBars 14 | intervalBars 30 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| amountPct 0.01 | 793% | 1212% | 856% | 465% |
| amountPct 0.02 | 684% | 1059% | 1200% | 814% |
| amountPct 0.05 | 505% | 777% | 914% | 1243% |
| amountPct 0.1 | 422% | 637% | 722% | 839% |
Hover a cell for trade count and drawdown. “·” = invalid combination (fast ≥ slow).
| Year | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | -49% | 16% | 196% | 3% | -35% | 56% | 51% | -14% | 16% |
| Max DD | 56% | 44% | 13% | 31% | 41% | 14% | 16% | 29% | 13% |
| Trades | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Period | 2018-01-01 → 2026-09-23 |
| Parameters | {"intervalBars":7,"amountPct":0.02} |
| Rolling test | 365 bars × 95 start dates |
| Input hash | 324be4210c730d82 |
49 fills. Signals are taken on the close and filled at the next open.
Everything above uses the daily row. These are the same rules and the same parameters on a different candle size.
| Timeframe | Return | Buy & hold | vs B&H | Beat it | Trades |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4H | 179% | 271% | -92% | no | 0 |
| 1D ← | 671% | 276% | +395% | yes | 0 |
| 1W | 538% | 271% | +267% | yes | 0 |
A single return is one chosen start date. These are 95 runs of the same rules with the start shifted forward 30 days at a time.
| Worst | p10 | p25 | Median | p75 | p90 | Best | Losing starts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -61.5% | -36.3% | -17.9% | 9.2% | 51.9% | 178.0% | 577.9% | 34% |
The headline above uses one parameter setting. Here is every setting tested: 16 combinations, median 381.5%, best 1114.8%, worst 151.9%. 11 of them beat buy & hold.
DCA run across its own parameter range over the full period. The same rules flip from profit to loss depending only on the numbers you picked — which is why a single headline return is meaningless on its own.
| intervalBars 1 | intervalBars 7 | intervalBars 14 | intervalBars 30 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| amountPct 0.01 | 280% | 1115% | 876% | 427% |
| amountPct 0.02 | 177% | 671% | 1096% | 831% |
| amountPct 0.05 | 152% | 285% | 424% | 1016% |
| amountPct 0.1 | 164% | 176% | 263% | 381% |
Hover a cell for trade count and drawdown. “·” = invalid combination (fast ≥ slow).
| Year | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | -61% | -24% | 204% | 63% | -33% | 31% | 13% | 5% | 23% |
| Max DD | 76% | 55% | 28% | 38% | 40% | 17% | 29% | 39% | 16% |
| Trades | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Period | 2018-01-01 → 2026-09-23 |
| Parameters | {"intervalBars":7,"amountPct":0.02} |
| Rolling test | 365 bars × 95 start dates |
| Input hash | 8437f62d26e18bc5 |
49 fills. Signals are taken on the close and filled at the next open.
Everything above uses the daily row. These are the same rules and the same parameters on a different candle size.
| Timeframe | Return | Buy & hold | vs B&H | Beat it | Trades |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4H | 121% | 119% | +3% | yes | 0 |
| 1D ← | 131% | 119% | +12% | yes | 0 |
| 1W | 82% | 123% | -40% | no | 0 |
A single return is one chosen start date. These are 62 runs of the same rules with the start shifted forward 30 days at a time.
| Worst | p10 | p25 | Median | p75 | p90 | Best | Losing starts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -10.8% | -2.2% | 0.5% | 6.1% | 19.5% | 25.1% | 40.2% | 21% |
The headline above uses one parameter setting. Here is every setting tested: 16 combinations, median 121.5%, best 133.3%, worst 67.8%. 11 of them beat buy & hold.
DCA run across its own parameter range over the full period. The same rules flip from profit to loss depending only on the numbers you picked — which is why a single headline return is meaningless on its own.
| intervalBars 1 | intervalBars 7 | intervalBars 14 | intervalBars 30 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| amountPct 0.01 | 125% | 133% | 128% | 68% |
| amountPct 0.02 | 121% | 131% | 132% | 124% |
| amountPct 0.05 | 115% | 120% | 126% | 128% |
| amountPct 0.1 | 110% | 112% | 114% | 121% |
Hover a cell for trade count and drawdown. “·” = invalid combination (fast ≥ slow).
| Year | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | 1% | 1% | 5% | 12% | 30% | -4% |
| Max DD | 6% | 11% | 6% | 7% | 10% | 10% |
| Trades | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Period | 2020-09-01 → 2026-09-23 |
| Parameters | {"intervalBars":7,"amountPct":0.02} |
| Rolling test | 365 bars × 62 start dates |
| Input hash | 60d9b378edb3d5f3 |