Backtesting overview
What backtesting is, its current availability, and how to use it.
Backtesting lets you simulate your strategy logic against historical candle data — up to 2 years — to evaluate its past performance before going live. This article explains how the backtest engine works, what assumptions it makes, and when to use it versus paper trading.
Admin beta
Backtesting is currently in admin-controlled beta. It is not available to all users — access is enabled per-account by the Coinrule team. If you'd like to request access, contact [email protected].
What backtesting does
Backtesting runs your strategy logic against historical candle data to simulate how it would have performed over a past period.
Key characteristics:
- Fills execute at the next-open price after a signal fires (no look-ahead bias).
- P&L is expressed in USD.
- Maximum historical window: 2 years.
- Order type assumptions are simplified — market orders.
What backtesting doesn't do
- Backtesting does not simulate slippage or fees.
- Backtesting does not account for liquidity — large orders fill at the open price regardless of size.
- Paper trading (forward simulation) is a separate feature and is available to all users.
When to use it
Backtesting is useful for:
- Checking whether a strategy had any historical edge
- Identifying obvious failure modes (always losing, over-trading, drawdown profile)
- Comparing different parameter sets
Always validate with a forward paper-trading period before going live.