Backtest evidence

Does changing the RVI period change the result, and what actually decides it?

RVI Periods and Spread Costs: 2 Years Tested

Finding

The period barely matters; the cost decides. On hourly bars period 4 produced 1,336 trades a year and period 55 produced 1,078 — a fourteen-fold change in the setting for a 20% change in frequency. The RVI line is smoothed by the period, but the signal line is a fixed four-bar weighted average that tracks it regardless, so how often the two cross is not governed by the period. Five of the ten hourly periods were profitable in both 2024 and 2025 — 4, 10, 14, 40 and 55 — with period 55 at +3,071.8 pips in 2025 and +606.5 in 2024, and period 14 at +1,853.1 and +1,910.1. Period 10 on 15-minute bars traded 4,375 times a year and returned −916.0 pips at a 0.3 pip spread, −3,978.5 at 1.0 and −8,353.5 at 2.0; even at zero spread it made only +396.5.

Key results

Trades a year across a fourteen-fold period change, hourly
1,336 at period 4, 1,078 at period 55
Periods profitable in both years, hourly
5 of 10: 4, 10, 14, 40 and 55
Period 10 on 15-minute bars by spread
+396.5 at zero, −916.0 at 0.3, −3,978.5 at 1.0, −8,353.5 pips at 2.0

Scope

  • USDJPY, 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31, with 2024 run identically for comparison
  • 15-minute, hourly and four-hour bars; 6,226 hourly bars in 2025, 24,903 on 15-minute, 1,610 on four-hour
  • 10 periods (4, 6, 8, 10, 14, 18, 24, 30, 40, 55), per timeframe and per year
  • 0.3 pip spread, 0.1 lots, zero slippage

Method

Measured with Formiq's backtester. A long fills at the close of the bar where RVI crosses above its signal line and a short where it crosses below; the only exit is the opposite crossover, reversing on the same bar. No stop, no target, no time exit.

Limitations

  • One pair, two years.
  • RVI varies little between implementations, but signal-line conventions differ. These figures come from Formiq's.
  • Entries and exits both fill at bar closes.
  • The spread is modelled as flat for the whole period; real spreads move with the session, and high-frequency settings feel that most.
  • Four-hour configurations trade about 275 times a year in a narrow 271 to 333 band; the period made no difference to frequency there either.