Manual Backtesting: Placing and Managing Trades

This article walks through every control in the Manual Backtesting trade panel. If you have not created a session yet, start with the Manual Backtesting overview. For interpreting your results, see statistics and performance metrics.

Direction#

Choose Long (profit when price rises) or Short (profit when price falls). Shorts are simulated even on spot pairs, so you can practice both sides of the market anywhere.

Order type#

Market — the trade executes immediately at the current bar's price, adjusted by the session's slippage setting.
Limit — the order is placed at your chosen price and waits. As you advance the replay, the order fills when price reaches it; until then it sits in the Pending Trades tab, where you can cancel it. Quick buttons let you set the limit price a fixed percentage above or below the current price (−0.5%, −0.25%, +0.25%, +0.5%).

Press Shift + M to toggle between market and limit quickly.

Position size#

Two sizing modes are available via the Amount / Risk switch:

Amount mode#

Enter the position size directly in USDT, or tap a quick button to use 1%, 2%, 3%, 5%, or 10% of your current balance. Simple and fast, but the dollar risk of each trade varies with your stop distance.

Risk mode#

Instead of choosing a position size, you choose how much you are willing to lose if the stop loss hits, and the position size is calculated for you:

Risk basis % — risk a percentage of your current balance (e.g., 1% per trade).
Risk basis USDT — risk a fixed dollar amount per trade.

Risk mode requires a valid stop loss — the panel needs to know the distance between entry and stop to work out the size. The calculated position size appears in the (read-only) amount field and updates live as you move the stop. This is the sizing method most professional risk models use: a tight stop automatically gets a bigger position, a wide stop a smaller one, and every loser costs roughly the same.

Futures settings#

When the active pair is a futures market, an extra section appears:

Leverage — set via slider, presets, or exact value. Leverage multiplies both your exposure and the interest of the estimated liquidation price.
Margin type — Cross (your whole balance backs the position, liquidation is further away) or Isolated (only the position's margin is at risk, liquidation is closer).
Estimated liquidation price — shown live so you can check whether your stop loss sits safely inside it. If price reaches liquidation before your stop, the trade exits as a liquidation.

Futures pairs also auto-apply the 0.02% futures trading fee unless you set a different fee on the session.

Take profit targets#

Enable the Take Profit Targets switch to define where you take profit. You can add multiple targets to scale out of a position in parts:

Each target has a price (set via the input, the slider, quick buttons, or by picking directly on the chart with the crosshair button) and a size % — the share of the position that closes at that target. Size percentages are kept at a total of 100% automatically; removing a target redistributes its share evenly.
The percentage next to each target shows its distance from your entry price.

The mode selector switches how quick buttons work:

Price mode — buttons place the target 1–10% away from entry. The percentages are fee-adjusted, so "1%" means one percent of profit after fees, not before.
R:R mode — buttons place the target at a multiple of your risk: 1:1, 1:2, up to 1:5. A 1:3 target sits three times as far from entry as your stop loss does. R:R mode requires a valid stop loss, since risk distance is measured from it.

When a partial target hits during replay, that portion of the position closes and the profit is locked in; the rest keeps running.

Stop loss#

Enable the Stop Loss switch and set the exit level the same ways as a take profit: type a price or percentage, drag the slider, use quick buttons (1–10%, fee-adjusted), or pick the level on the chart. The placeholder reminds you which side of entry a valid stop must be on.

Price / R:R mode — in R:R mode the quick buttons express your stop as a ratio of your first take profit target (and the panel shows your current effective R:R).
Trailing — check the trailing box to convert the stop into a trailing stop. The distance between the current price and your stop becomes the trailing distance: as price moves in your favor, the stop follows at that distance and locks in profit; if price reverses by the distance, the trade exits. The stop never moves against you.

A trade without a stop loss can be closed manually, by a take profit, by auto exit, or by the end of the session period — but nothing protects it on the way down. Trading with a stop is strongly recommended; it is also what makes risk-based sizing and R:R statistics meaningful.

Auto exit#

Enable Auto exit to close whatever remains of the position after a set number of bars. This suits time-based strategies ("if the breakout hasn't worked in 10 bars, get out") and prevents zombie trades from lingering while you fast-forward.

Trade info#

Before executing, the panel summarizes the plan:

Planned $ Profit — what you make if all take profit targets fill.
Planned $ SL — what you lose if the stop hits.
R:R — the ratio between the two.

If anything is inconsistent (a stop on the wrong side, a target below entry on a long, insufficient balance), validation messages appear and the execute button is disabled until you fix them.

Executing and updating#

Click Execute Long / Execute Short (or press Cmd/Ctrl + Enter). Market orders open immediately; limit orders go to Pending.

While a trade is open, the same panel becomes the trade editor: adjust the take profit targets or stop loss and click Update Trade to apply the changes to the live position. Direction, order type, and size are locked while a trade runs — use position management instead:

Increase / Reduce position — scale in or out by a percentage of the position or a USDT amount, executed at the current market price (slippage applies). Reductions realize profit or loss immediately; increases raise your invested amount and shift your average entry price.
End trade (fast forward) — jump the replay ahead until the trade closes on its own by hitting a target, the stop, or the end of the period. You can stop the fast-forward at any time.
Close position — exit everything instantly at the current price (recorded as a manual close).
Cancel Limit Order — remove a pending limit order that has not filled.

Exit reasons#

Every completed trade records why it ended: Take Profit, Partial Take Profit, Stop Loss, Liquidation, Bar Limit (auto exit), Period End (the session ran out of data), or Manual Close. Reviewing exit reasons later tells you a lot — for example, many manual closes on trades that would have hit take profit is a classic sign of cutting winners short.

Journal and notes#

Toggle the Journal button before or during a trade to save it to your trade journal when it completes. The Notes tab lets you write entry reasoning, screenshots of your thinking, or emotional state while the trade is live — notes travel with the journaled trade, and honest notes are what make later review valuable.

Trade setup templates#

If you trade the same setup repeatedly, save it as a template:

Configure direction, sizing, take profit, and stop loss the way you like.
Open the Templates menu and choose to save the current setup.
Give it a name, an optional description, and an optional hotkey.

Applying a template restores the whole configuration — sizing mode, risk settings, TP/SL modes, and R:R ratios — recalculated against the current price. Templates can be applied from the trade panel, from the floating control bar, or instantly via their hotkey, which makes single-keystroke entries possible: see your setup, press the key, execute. Templates can be edited or deleted from the same menu.