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Backtesting

Turn your trading ideas into winning strategies! Use backtesting to test custom trading systems against historical data.

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Backtesting Key Features

Multi-Stock Backtesting

Backtest trading systems using thousands of stocks to estimate its performance, profitability, and probability odds.

Full-History Backtests

Create backtests for your trading systems using up to 30+ years of price and financial history for a single stock.

Custom Trading Systems

Create and manage your custom trading systems and backtest them to estimate profitability and probability of winning.

Performance Benchmarking

Compare the backtest performance results of your trading system to a benchmark stock or ETF; e.g., SPY.

Backtests Dashboard

Manage your backtests in a single location by using our backtests table to manage your backtests and view their results.

Backtest Trade History

View the entry and exit price for all of the stocks your trading system bought and sold during the backtest simulation.

Test your strategies

Backtesting Key Takeaways

  • Backtest your custom trading systems.

  • Create large multi-stock generic backtests.

  • Create single stock full-history backtests.

  • Compare backtest performance to a benchmark.

  • Estimate the probability of winning and losing.

  • Analyze your backtest results for profitability.

  • Store the results of 200 custom backtests.

Backtest trading systems

What is Backtesting?

Backtesting is a method stock traders use to evaluate the performance of their trading system or strategy using historical data. It involves using past market data to simulate how a trading system would have performed if it had been used during a specific time period in the past.

With backtesting, a trader uses historical price and financial data to test the probability (of winning and losing), the profitability, and risk (volatility) of a trading system.

The backtest can help traders identify which trading systems would have performed well in the past, and potentially be used for future trades; however, keep in mind that past performance doesn't guarantee future performance.

Backtesting trading systems
Backtest performance benchmarking

Backtest Performance Benchmarking

Compare the performance of your trading system's backtest to the performance of a benchmark, such as the SPY, an ETF stock, or any stock we have data for.

By comparing the performance results of a backtest to a benchmark, a trader is able to determine if their trading system overperformed or underperformed the market during the past, for example, if the trader uses the SPY (an ETF that tracks the S&P 500 index).

Our performance benchmarking feature lets traders visualize and compare their backtest annual performance to the annual performance of a benchmark. Visualize the simulated account balance growth of the backtest and benchmark.

Trading System Entry & Exit Signals

Create custom trading systems with thousands of combinations of entry and exit signals. Use entry and exit signal rules to define when to enter and exit a trade. Choose from price action, candlesticks, technical, dividends, and fundamental signals.

    50+ Price Action Signals
  • Choose from 50+ price action entry / exit signal rules. Enter and exit stocks based on price, performance, and trend changes.

  • 350+ Candlestick Pattern Signals
  • Choose from 350+ Japanese candlestick pattern entry / exit signal rules. Create backtests based on a combination of candlestick patterns for different timeframes, including daily, weekly, and monthly.

  • 40+ Technical Indicator Signals
  • Choose from 40+ technical indicator entry and exit signal rules, including trend, volume, momentum, and volatility signal rules.

  • 20+ Dividend Signals
  • Use our dividend entry and exit signal rules, such as dividend yield, to enter and exit trades during a backtesting simulation of your trading system.

  • 600+ Fundamental Signals
  • Choose from 600+ fundamental entry and exit signal rules and incorporate financial data and metrics into backtesting your trading systems.

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Backtesting FAQ