I have developed an algorithm / model that predicts the next day direction of CBOT wheat futures. It performs sufficiently well in backtesting that I'm interested to see how it would perform with real money behind it.
However, I'm on a pretty tight budget.
What are the most cost efficient options for front testing a strategy on a low budget? I've looked into ETF's, but often the fees involved, if reasonable for larger investments, completely obliterate any performance achieved by my model.
try a demo account of fair broker (Interactive Brokers if you are able to base account there) and you will see if it really works (1 month min)
if it works good, find an investor (managed account is a good scheme). If you are not able to make anyone believe you, borrow money to fund your own account. Avoid friends and family - nothing is worse than going bad with business and friends in one time.
Plenty of small hedge funds will be interested if its good.
Try modifying it into a spread trade. (ie Long the nearby month, short a far month). The margins are much smaller. A W k8 vs W N8 spread has \$167 margin/ spread. Outright wheat can be \$1000 /contract.
