Backtest can test your rules on a forex or crypto chart file as well as futures. Each trade is sized in lots or coins exactly as the Bot's own simulator sizes it, so a forex or crypto backtest takes the same trades the Bot's simulator would on the same file.
These results are not yet something the Bot can trade live. The Bot trades futures only today, and every forex and crypto result says so.
Which market
After you add your file and confirm its time zone, you confirm whether it is futures, forex or crypto. If your file names its instrument, the page asks whether that is right. You confirm the market, and the pair or coin.
On forex, your rules read in pips. A stop of 20 means 20 pips. Gold, silver, oil and indices use their own pip: 0.1 for gold, 0.01 for silver and oil, and 1 point for an index.
Fees
Every field starts empty. Leave out any fee you don't pay. With nothing entered, results say Fees not entered and show profit before fees only.
Forex:
- Spread, in pips. It is charged as a cost on each trade.
- Commission, in dollars per lot, in and out.
- Financing, in dollars per lot per night held, for buys and for sells. It is charged on weekday nights, with Wednesday night charged three times. A negative number is paid to you.
Crypto:
- Fee, as a percentage of the trade's value, in and again out.
Results show each trade's fees in dollars, with profit after fees next to profit before fees.
Pairs not quoted in dollars
A pip is worth an amount in the pair's second currency. For a pair like EURUSD that is dollars. For one like USDJPY it is divided by the price the trade was sized at, so its size and its fees use the same rate. For a pair like EURGBP you type what one pound is worth in dollars, and that rate stays fixed for the whole test. Gold and indices ask how many units one lot is at your broker.
Trade size
Type the smallest size your broker takes and the step sizes go up in, such as 0.01 lot or 0.0001 coin. Each trade is sized to your risk per trade and rounded down to a whole step. A size under your smallest is no trade. Your risk is checked after rounding.
The weekend (forex)
Forex closes at 5pm New York on Friday. You choose:
- Close before Friday's 5pm New York close, and how many minutes before.
- Hold over the weekend. A stop the price jumps past over the weekend fills at Sunday's opening price.
For now, forex tests can close 1 minute before Friday's close. If you choose a different number of minutes, or holding over the weekend, choosing Test says that it arrives shortly, and nothing is tested a different way from what you chose.
More numbers shows how many trades were held over a weekend. Crypto never closes, so it isn't asked.
Strategy types
A few strategy types can't be sized in lots or coins yet. If yours is one, choosing Test on a forex or crypto file says so, and the same strategy can still be tested on a futures file.
File time zones
MetaTrader files are in your broker's server time, which you choose. HistData files are in New York standard time all year, and the page asks you to confirm that.