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§27 STRATEGY_BACKTESTER

Run a strategy against historical price data and read the performance ledger before committing capital.

OVERVIEW

Backtest is a server-side strategy backtester. Select a symbol, strategy, parameter set, date range, and starting balance. The engine pulls daily historical closes, walks bar-by-bar evaluating the strategy signal at each close, and simulates an all-cash long-only book.

STRATEGY_BACKTESTER

  • Buy signal: deploys all available cash into shares at that day's close
  • Sell signal: liquidates the full position at that day's close
  • Round-trip P&L is recorded at the sell; equity is marked-to-close every day
  • Sharpe ratio is annualized off daily returns using the standard √252 scaling

Scope limitations

Long-only, single-symbol, daily-bar only. No shorting, no multi-asset portfolios, no intraday timing, no transaction costs, no commission or slippage modeling. Custom strategy upload is not currently available — the four strategies in the dropdown are the full set.

FEATURES

Strategies

Strategy Signal logic Defaults
rsi_crossover Buy when RSI(period) crosses below oversold; sell when RSI crosses above overbought period 14 / oversold 30 / overbought 70
ma_crossover Buy when close crosses above the moving average; sell when close crosses below. maType=0 SMA, maType=1 EMA period 20
macd_signal Buy on bullish MACD cross (MACD line crosses above signal line); sell on bearish cross fast 12 / slow 26 / signal 9
bollinger_breakout Buy when price breaks below the lower band; sell when price breaks above the upper band (mean-reversion logic) period 20 / stdDev 2.0

Result Metrics

Metric Definition
Total Return (finalEquity − initialCapital) / initialCapital × 100
Buy & Hold Same window, all cash deployed at the first close, marked at the last close
Max Drawdown Peak-to-trough decline of the strategy equity curve
Sharpe Ratio Annualized Sharpe off daily returns, √252 scaling
Win Rate Percentage of closed trades with positive P&L
Total Trades Count of completed round-trip trades
Final Equity Closing portfolio value at end of window
vs Buy & Hold Total Return minus the Buy & Hold return for the same window

Output Panels

Summary cards — eight metrics displayed with green/red coloring matched to the sign of the result.

Equity curve — strategy line (solid) plotted against buy-and-hold (dashed) over the full date range. The shape of the curve — particularly drawdown behavior — is more informative than the endpoint alone.

Trade log — bar-by-bar entry and exit table showing date, price, share count, dollar P&L, and percent P&L for every completed trade. Use this to identify whipsaw runs and individual blow-up trades.

ACCESS

Item Detail
Path /backtest
Keyboard shortcut None
Sidebar location §TOOLS group
Required tier Pro and above

Tier gate

Free accounts see the upgrade gate. Access is enforced server-side as well as in the app — the backtest cannot be run from a Free account regardless of how the request is made.

HOW TO USE

  1. Open /backtest. The form loads pre-filled with AAPL, RSI Crossover, default parameters, 2024-01-01 to 2026-01-01, and $10,000 initial capital.
  2. Enter a Symbol. Input is uppercased automatically.
  3. Select a Strategy from the dropdown. Changing the strategy resets all parameters to that strategy's defaults.
  4. Set Start Date and End Date. The window must contain at least 50 trading days of available history — shorter windows return an error.
  5. Set Initial Capital. Must be greater than 0.
  6. Adjust strategy parameters in the second row. Each strategy exposes its own parameter set — see the Strategies table above for the full field list per strategy.
  7. Click [ RUN_BACKTEST ]. The button changes to [ RUNNING... ] while data is pulled and the engine runs — typically two to ten seconds.
  8. Review the eight summary cards, the equity curve, and the trade log.

Reading the results

Do not use the absolute return numbers to validate a real trading system. The absence of commission, slippage, intraday timing, and short capability means headline returns are optimistic. Focus on the delta between strategy and buy-and-hold, and the shape of the equity curve — particularly whether the strategy moves to cash ahead of significant drawdowns.

WHEN TO USE

  • First-pass edge check — does RSI(14) with 30/70 thresholds beat buy-and-hold on a given name over the last two years?
  • Strategy family comparison — same window, same capital, swap RSI → MACD → Bollinger and compare Sharpe deltas.
  • Parameter sweep — change RSI period from 14 to 21 and observe win rate movement.
  • Drawdown stress test — bracket a known bear cycle with the date range and check whether the strategy moves to cash or rides it down.