Stocks and Shares · Building an equity strategy · lesson 4 of 9 · 6 min read · David Alexander
From screen to setup, without peeking
look-ahead bias
Using information at a test date that was not knowable on that date: fundamentals as later restated, results applied before their announcement moment, index membership before its effective day. Equity data is uniquely full of revision and delay, so equity backtests are uniquely able to peek without noticing - and a rule tested on peeked data learned from a world that never existed.
This lesson is part of the advanced modules.
Modules 6 to 8 are included with a paid account. The definitional summary above is the whole of this page until then.