RSI 30/70: backtest results
The textbook RSI strategy: buy when the 14-period RSI says oversold (below 30), sell when it says overbought (above 70). We ran it on real daily data for 4 stocks. It did not beat simply buying and holding on any of the 4 stocks we tested.
Results by stock
| Stock | Period | Strategy | Buy & hold | Beat it? | Worst drop | Trades | Win rate | Caution |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple (AAPL) | 2016 → 2025 | +254.4% | +1038.8% | no | -29.8% | 11 | 100.0% | |
| Amazon (AMZN) | 2016 → 2025 | +183.0% | +613.2% | no | -44.2% | 9 | 88.9% | only 9 closed trades; fell 44% at its worst |
| Robinhood (HOOD) | 2021 → 2025 | -36.6% | +223.5% | no | -81.4% | 4 | 75.0% | only 4 closed trades; fell 81% at its worst |
| Tesla (TSLA) | 2016 → 2025 | +390.0% | +2877.2% | no | -52.5% | 11 | 81.8% | fell 53% at its worst |
Best: Tesla on +390.0%. One set of rules, fixed in advance, run on every stock: no tuning to make the numbers look better. A strategy with few trades or a big drop deserves less trust than its return suggests.
The exact rules
Buy Apple when the 14 day RSI is below 30. Sell when the 14 day RSI is above 70.
Paste those words into Extractor and it runs the same test, shows every trade on the chart with entry, stop loss and take profit, and compares it with buy & hold. Change a number and run it again in seconds.
Run these rules now, freeFree TradingView indicator (Pine Script v5)
Copy this into TradingView's Pine Editor and click Add to chart. It marks the buy and sell signals and draws the levels.
//@version=5
// Indicator generated by Extractor from your rules.
// Built for AAPL on the daily (1D) chart.
// Buy when: rsi(14) < 30
// Sell when: rsi(14) > 70
// Marks where your rules say buy and sell, and adds alerts you can turn on in TradingView.
indicator("RSI 30/70 signals", overlay=true)
rsi14 = ta.rsi(close, 14)
entrySignal = (rsi14 < 30)
exitSignal = (rsi14 > 70)
// Track whether the rules are in a trade, so signals don't repeat while already long.
var bool inTrade = false
var float entryPrice = na
stopHit = false
targetHit = false
buy = not inTrade and entrySignal
sell = inTrade and (exitSignal or stopHit or targetHit)
if sell
inTrade := false
entryPrice := na
else if buy
inTrade := true
entryPrice := close
// Levels stay drawn through the bar where the trade closes.
wasInTrade = inTrade or sell
levelBase = sell ? entryPrice[1] : entryPrice
plotshape(buy, "Buy", shape.labelup, location.belowbar, color.new(color.teal, 0), text="BUY", textcolor=color.white, size=size.small)
plotshape(sell, "Sell", shape.labeldown, location.abovebar, color.new(color.red, 0), text="SELL", textcolor=color.white, size=size.small)
alertcondition(buy, "Buy signal", "RSI 30/70: buy signal on {{ticker}} at {{close}}")
alertcondition(sell, "Sell signal", "RSI 30/70: sell signal on {{ticker}} at {{close}}")
Test your own version
- Different stock, crypto or forex pair? Change the ticker in the description.
- Add a stop loss or take profit and see if it helps.
- Saw a strategy on YouTube? Paste the link and get the rules, the backtest and the indicator.