Your first backtest

This walks you through one full session — setting it up, stepping through history, placing a trade, closing it, and reading the result. Follow it exactly the first time; you can experiment afterwards.

1. Open the setup screen

   Click Chart in the left sidebar. This is where every session begins.

   

2. Choose a backtesting session

   Leave Backtesting session selected. This is free practice with no pass or fail — the prop-firm option adds rules, and you can try that later.

3. Name your strategy

   Type a name that describes what you are testing — London Breakout, say, or Gold scalp.

   This matters more than it looks. Every session, trade and statistic is grouped under this name, so you can compare one approach against another later. Use the same name each time you test the same idea.

4. Pick a market and a date

   Choose a market from the dropdown — EUR/USD is a sensible first choice — then set a start date. History goes back to 2005 for the major currency pairs.

   Pick a date you have not studied closely. The less you remember about what happened next, the more honest the test.

5. Set your starting balance

   Use a number you would actually trade. If your real account is $5,000, testing with $100,000 teaches you nothing about how you size positions.

6. Press Start

   The chart loads at your chosen moment with the future hidden.

   

7. Move forward

   Use the floating controls at the bottom. Step forward prints one candle. Play runs continuously, and the speed dropdown goes up to 16x.

   

   The clock in the top bar shows where you are in history.

8. Place a trade

   When you see a setup you like, click Buy or Sell. The order ticket opens.

   

   Set your size, add a stop loss and a take profit, then confirm. Your position appears on the chart and in the panel underneath.

9. Manage it

   Keep stepping forward. Your profit and loss updates as each candle prints, and if price reaches your stop or your target the trade closes on its own — exactly as it would with a broker.

   

   To close by hand, press Close in the positions panel.

10. End the session and read the summary

    Press Back, then End session. You get a summary of what you just did — net result, win rate, and where you left money on the table.

    

What to do next

Your trades are now saved. Open the Journal to see them listed, or Analytics to see the numbers. They will look thin after one session — that is normal. The picture becomes useful somewhere around thirty trades.

Do the same test three times on three different dates before you judge a strategy. One session tells you almost nothing; three start to show a pattern.