Optimisation means searching through combinations of settings to find the ones that produced the best result on a particular historical period. The danger is that with enough combinations, one of them will look excellent purely by fitting the accidents of that data. A setting that only performs well at its exact optimum is usually a sign of this, and it is why the assumptions behind any published test should be readable.
Forex glossary
Parameter Optimisation
Related term
Curve Fitting
Curve fitting, also called over-optimisation, is the result of tuning rules so closely to one historical period that they describe its noise rather than any rep…
Spotted an error or a missing nuance?
Definitions are written by us and corrected when we are told we are wrong. If your broker quotes differently — especially on gold — say so and we will record the assumption.