How to use the Backtest tool

Have a trading idea and want to know if it would have worked? Describe it in plain words, and the Backtester builds it, runs it on real historical data and shows you the result.

1. Click Backtester in the left sidebar, then New strategy at the top right.
2. Under Describe your strategy, write your idea in plain words: the entry and exit rules, indicators, the instrument or the timeframe. Cypher fills in whatever you leave out. Or click one of the suggestions under the box (Dip buying with MA filter, Gap and go momentum, RSI mean reversion on SPY or VWAP bounce scalper) to fill it in.
3. Click Create with Cypher. Cypher writes the strategy, sets up the backtest and saves the idea in My ideas, all in one step: there is nothing else to confirm. It then runs the backtest by itself. This can take a minute or two, and longer for big scans, so you can wait or come back later.
4. When it finishes, the idea opens on the Results tab with the equity curve and the Backtest Metrics: total return, win rate, profit factor, max drawdown, Sharpe ratio, Sortino ratio, total trades and final equity.
5. Open the Trades tab to see every trade, and the Strategy tab to read the rules Cypher wrote.
6. To test a different symbol, period or costs, click Settings at the top right, change what you want and click Run Backtest (or the Run button at the top to run the current settings again).

Every run is saved, and each change you make can be kept as a new version of the idea, so you can compare them later.