Hello David
Thank you for the guidelines listed in this posting.
I am about to start the marketing of an investment strategy I have backtested, and even though I am marketing this only to professional money managers the points you have listed are helpful to ensure that the backtested results are accurately presented.
I also thought your point about being unable to model all transaction costs, such as the price impact of a trade, or bid-ask spreads, was a good one. I have used minimum volume filters to address both of these issues but as you point out this is not actual trading.
Thanks again for taking the time to put this post together - it is timely in my case.
Best wishes
Savio