The best indicator for Principal Financial Group (PFG)
We backtested 20 indicators across daily, weekly and hourly charts on real Principal Financial Group (PFG) history. Here's what actually worked — risk-adjusted, out-of-sample, with costs.
SMA 50/200 Cross
On the daily chart, this is the strongest risk-adjusted edge we found for Principal Financial Group (PFG) over ~24.6 years — trailing buy-and-hold by 0.8% 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 | SMA 50/200 Cross ✓ | Daily | 8.9% | 0.49 | -40.6% | 52.6% | 19 | -0.8% |
| 2 | Williams %R ✓ | Weekly | 9.0% | 0.42 | -75.3% | 81.1% | 37 | -0.5% |
| 3 | EMA 50/200 Cross ✓ | Daily | 6.9% | 0.41 | -39.7% | 40.0% | 15 | -2.8% |
| 4 | Stochastic ✓ | Weekly | 7.1% | 0.37 | -75.3% | 72.7% | 22 | -2.4% |
| 5 | WaveTrend (8/6/4) ✓ | Daily | 6.4% | 0.36 | -71.3% | 73.0% | 89 | -3.3% |
| 6 | Bollinger Mean-Reversion ✓ | Daily | 5.5% | 0.33 | -60.7% | 69.1% | 97 | -4.2% |
| 7 | EMA-10 Trend ✓ | Weekly | 4.3% | 0.29 | -41.3% | 49.2% | 128 | -5.2% |
| 8 | EMA 20/50 Cross | Daily | 3.6% | 0.27 | -48.8% | 38.5% | 65 | -6.1% |
| 9 | Bollinger Breakout ✓ | Weekly | 2.7% | 0.27 | -40.7% | 40.0% | 25 | -6.9% |
| 10 | WaveTrend (8/6/4) ✓ | Weekly | 3.6% | 0.27 | -89.4% | 80.0% | 20 | -5.9% |
| 11 | Heikin-Ashi Trend ✓ | Weekly | 3.9% | 0.27 | -72.6% | 57.0% | 235 | -5.6% |
| 12 | EMA 20/50 Cross ✓ | Weekly | 4.1% | 0.3 | -68.7% | 38.5% | 13 | -5.5% |
| 13 | MACD ✓ | Daily | 3.2% | 0.25 | -71.7% | 44.4% | 243 | -6.5% |
| 14 | Stochastic ✓ | Daily | 2.7% | 0.24 | -71.3% | 65.1% | 106 | -7.0% |
✓ = held up out-of-sample. Hypothetical, costs included. See methodology.
For Principal Financial Group (PFG), SMA 50/200 Cross on the daily 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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