what does robust mean 
in the world of investing robust is a characteristic describing a model s test s or system s ability to perform effectively while its variables or assumptions are altered a robust concept will operate without failure and produce positive results under a variety of conditions for statistics a test is robust if it still provides insight into a problem despite having its assumptions altered or violated in economics robustness is attributed to financial markets that continue to perform despite alterations in market conditions in general a system is robust if it can handle variability and remain effective understanding robustfinancial models are an integral part of running a corporation from the corporate executives of large multinational corporations to the franchise owner of the local burger restaurant decision makers need timely information presented to them in a model form that best reflects the activities of the business investors also use financial models to analyze and forecast the value of corporations to determine if they are viable prospective investments business financial modelsbusiness financial models focus mainly on the fundamentals of a corporation or business such as revenues costs profits and other financial ratios a model is considered to be robust if its output and forecasts are consistently accurate even if one or more of the input variables or assumptions are drastically changed due to unforeseen circumstances for example a specific cost variable may sharply increase due to a severe decrease in supply resulting from a natural disaster another commonly unforeseen circumstance is when war erupts between major countries many financial variables can be impacted due to war which causes models that are not robust to function erratically a robust model will continue to provide executives and managers with effective decision making tools and investors with accurate information on which to base their investment decisions robust trading modelswhile investors analyze a corporation s fundamental data in order to find securities that are priced below market value and are therefore perceived to be a good investment traders analyze a security s price data using technical analysis to forecast price movements that result from disparities in the security s supply and demand of the moment traders that use computerized trading systems to analyze and trade markets using technical analysis do so by developing testing and optimizing statistical models based on the application of technical indicators to the price data of a security this is typically done by looking at historical or past price data along with market indicators and identifying situations that have high probabilities of success in the future a trading model is considered robust if it is consistently profitable regardless of market direction very often a trading model will function well in a specific market condition or time period however when market conditions change or the model is applied to another time period or the future the model fails horribly and losses are realized this is usually a sign that a trading model is not robust 