Open the dialog
Open the strategy in Backtesting
Click the run button
A draft offers Run first test…. A strategy with a run offers Run…, which opens the dialog on the run on screen.
Every setting starts fresh, unless the dialog opens on a run; then it lists any setting it could not carry over.
Period
Period is a row of presets: 1M, 3M, 6M, 1Y, 3Y, 5Y, 10Y and Custom, each ending on the day you open the dialog. A daily strategy opens on three years and an intraday strategy on six months. Custom takes a start and an end date, or you can drag the window on the strip below the presets.
A preset past how far the data reaches, or past how large a run may be, is greyed out and marked before the tape or too large to run. See The estimate was refused.
The strategy's settings
This strategy’s settings appears only when the strategy declares parameters. A number shows its bounds, such as Between 2 and 200 (whole numbers). A value outside its bounds gets an amber ring and the estimate refuses the run. A choice is a list. A bar choice lists timeframes such as Daily bars; an intraday bar moves an untouched period to six months.
Symbols, capital and benchmark
Symbols is the list the run trades, separated by commas or spaces. It opens on the strategy's own universe; a different list runs without changing the strategy. A static list may name up to 500 symbols. When a screen picks the universe, the field is locked and reads This strategy’s screen picks its symbols.
Starting capital is in dollars, $100,000 by default and at least $100. Benchmark is SPY by default and is Compared on the same days.
Costs and fills
The Costs and fills row states the fill rule and the costs; Change… opens the controls.
Slippage (bps) is 5 by default and 0 is allowed. Slippage applies to market and stop fills; limit fills never slip.
Whose trading costs picks the cost profile, Alpaca by default; Cost profiles describes each one and why Interactive Brokers is refused.
How orders fill offers a market order at the next bar's open, the default, At the next session’s close, for daily strategies only, or a limit that rests at a price you set. Size at the fill sizes each entry at its fill price instead of the decision bar's close: always under the session's close, never under a limit. See When trades happen.
A limit order adds these controls:
| Control | Choices |
|---|---|
| Offset measured in | Percent of the close, the default, or Multiple of ATR |
| Offset | Above -100 and below 100 percent, or within ±100 ATR; 0.25 by default. A positive offset rests a buy below the close and a sell above it. |
| ATR period (bars) | 1 to 500, 14 by default, under Multiple of ATR |
| When a bar reaches your price | Only if the bar trades through the price (recommended), the default, or As soon as the bar touches the price |
| How long it rests | Until the session ends, or A set number of bars, the default |
| Bars | 1 to 100,000, 3 by default, under A set number of bars |
Which signals become orders
By default every entry the strategy signals becomes an order, and only buying power turns one away. Take only the best candidates ranks each bar's candidates instead. Rank them by offers the screener's own order, for a universe picked by a screen with a sort, or the score a program returned. Either needs entries decided on daily bars, and any other pairing is refused with the reason. New positions per bar, Positions held at once and, under score only, Minimum score set the caps; a blank box is no limit, but at least one must be set.
Account
The Account row reads Cash account or Margin account. A Rules strategy that sells short needs Margin account on, or the estimate refuses the run; a Program strategy's short orders on a cash account are rejected during the run instead. With margin on, shorts pay 3% a year in borrow, and the requirements are 50% initial and 25% maintenance; see Margin defaults.
Limit entry allocations adds Maximum per stock (%), 50 by default, and Maximum total gross (%), 100 by default, with long and short exposure counted together. Each entry's whole-share quantity is reduced at its fill to fit after costs; later price changes do not force exits.
The estimate
The right side, This run will replay, re-sizes the run after every change: Symbols, Sessions, and the bar count as Daily bars or Minute bars.
The credits line reads Credits: pricing TBD, or about N credits or up to N credits where backtests are priced. A run over 250,000 member-sessions adds a checkbox to tick first. A run the workspace cannot cover is refused with Not enough credits for this run; see Credits and billing.
Under Before it runs, the data check reads The data covers the period. With a saved watchlist as the universe and Symbols left as that list, an amber line names any symbol listed too recently to warm up by the start, and the earliest start that covers them all. See The estimate was refused.
The last line before the button, such as Run #4 of v3 or Creates v1, says where the run lands, and is a menu when there are several versions. See Change notes on runs.
Any setting the dialog refuses shows This run can’t start yet. above the reason, and Run backtest stays disabled.
Run quotas
A workspace may have 4 runs queued or running and start 200 in any rolling 24 hours, and a launch past either is refused with Run limit reached. See The run quota is reached.
Start and follow the run
Check the estimate and the version line
Both describe the exact settings the button submits.
Click Run backtest
A toast reads Backtest submitted, and the strategy page shows the run as Queued, then Running.
The Progress card shows the share of sessions walked and, while the pace is steady, the time left. Its foot reads The run keeps going if you leave. Whoever started the run gets a notification when the verdict lands.
Cancel a run
Click Cancel run… on the strategy page
It shows to project editors and above while a run is queued or running.
Confirm with Cancel run
The dialog reads Cancel this run? and Nothing is charged for a cancelled run.
A cancelled run cannot be resumed; its row stays on the Runs tab as Cancelled.
What a completed run records
Each run keeps a row on the Runs tab, and Settings of this run on the Report tab records its settings; see The Runs view.
Changing the period or any setting runs the same version again; only a change to the strategy's nodes or code creates a new version. See Versions and configurations.