The best indicator for Live Cattle (LE)
We backtested 20 indicators across daily, weekly and hourly charts on real Live Cattle (LE) history. Here's what actually worked — risk-adjusted, out-of-sample, with costs.
MACD
On the weekly chart, this is the strongest risk-adjusted edge we found for Live Cattle (LE) over ~25.3 years — trailing buy-and-hold by 0.1% CAGR.
The winner on each chart
Every indicator, ranked
Ranked by Sharpe (risk-adjusted return). Hypothetical, fees included.
| # | Indicator | TF | CAGR | Sharpe | Max DD | Win | Trades | vs B&H |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MACD ✓ | Weekly | 4.5% | 0.42 | -33.4% | 56.5% | 46 | -0.1% |
| 2 | Stochastic ✓ | Daily | 3.8% | 0.4 | -32.8% | 76.6% | 145 | -0.8% |
| 3 | CCI ✓ | Weekly | 3.8% | 0.4 | -32.9% | 77.8% | 27 | -0.8% |
| 4 | Stochastic ✓ | Weekly | 3.9% | 0.38 | -35.7% | 69.0% | 29 | -0.7% |
| 5 | Rate of Change ✓ | Weekly | 4.2% | 0.38 | -22.8% | 44.9% | 69 | -0.4% |
| 6 | WaveTrend (8/6/4) ✓ | Weekly | 3.8% | 0.36 | -34.4% | 87.0% | 23 | -0.8% |
| 7 | EMA 20/50 Cross ✓ | Daily | 3.7% | 0.35 | -39.3% | 45.5% | 55 | -0.9% |
| 8 | WaveTrend (8/6/4) ✓ | Daily | 3.1% | 0.3 | -35.2% | 70.8% | 96 | -1.6% |
| 9 | Money Flow Index ✓ | Weekly | 2.8% | 0.29 | -32.3% | 69.2% | 13 | -1.8% |
| 10 | Bollinger Mean-Reversion ✓ | Daily | 1.8% | 0.24 | -36.9% | 66.7% | 90 | -2.8% |
| 11 | Williams %R ✓ | Weekly | 2.1% | 0.24 | -37.3% | 60.6% | 33 | -2.5% |
| 12 | EMA-10 Trend ✓ | Weekly | 2.2% | 0.23 | -32.9% | 47.8% | 115 | -2.4% |
| 13 | Money Flow Index ✓ | Daily | 1.9% | 0.21 | -34.0% | 63.4% | 41 | -2.7% |
| 14 | EMA 50/200 Cross ✓ | Daily | 1.8% | 0.2 | -50.5% | 27.8% | 18 | -2.8% |
✓ = held up out-of-sample. Hypothetical, costs included. See methodology.
For Live Cattle (LE), MACD on the weekly timeframe gave the best balance of return and risk in our test. It still trailed buy-and-hold on raw return — but remember: this is a hypothetical backtest of a standard rule, not a recommendation. Markets change. See the methodology and disclaimer.
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