Backtesting
Turn your trading ideas into winning strategies! Use backtesting to test custom trading systems against historical data.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Choose from 50+ price action entry / exit signal rules. Enter and exit stocks based on price, performance, and trend changes.
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.
Choose from 40+ technical indicator entry and exit signal rules, including trend, volume, momentum, and volatility signal rules.
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.
Choose from 600+ fundamental entry and exit signal rules and incorporate financial data and metrics into backtesting your trading systems.
Backtesting FAQ
Q.What is backtesting?
A.Backtesting is where a trader tests their trading system for profitability and measures its performance over historical price data. Backtest your trading system to see your strategies number of wins and losses and probabilities of winning or losing a trade with that system.
Q.What are the benefits of backtesting?
A.The benefits of backtesting are that it lets traders quickly test their trading strategies without having to test it by risking real money in the stock market. Before trading, it is useful to know how your trading system, or strategy, performs over historical price data.
Q.How do I backtest my trading system?
A.The backtesting feature is available to Stocksift Elite members. Once you upgrade your account, then you can visit the backtest page and create a trade system of rules to test for profitability.
Q.How many stocks can I test per backtest?
A.Our backtesting product lets users create custom backtests where a user can select thousands of stocks to use in a backtesting simulation.
Q.What are multi-stock backtests?
A.Multi-stock backtests are where a user creates a custom backtest and selects more than one stock to test their trading system against when the backtest simulation starts.
Q.How much data is available for multi-stock backtests?
A.Multi-stock backtests let users backtest their trading system over thousands of stocks and the last one year of price data.
Q.What are single stock full-history backtests?
A.Single stock full-history backtests let users create custom backtests for a single stock and use that stock's entire price history and financial history during the backtest.
Q.How much data is available for single stock full-history backtests?
A.Single stock full-history backtests let users backtest their trading system using up to 30+ years of historical price data and financial data.