How Should I Use Backtesting Before Simulator or Live Trading?
Start with backtesting when you want to check a strategy or settings change. It replays historical market data quickly. You can then forward-test the setup on a spot simulator before using real funds.
Recommended order:
- Backtest first. Historical tests let you compare settings, inspect drawdown and exposure, and review trade behavior without waiting for current market conditions.
- Forward-test on Simulator mode. Simulator mode runs a complete Gunbot instance with simulated spot execution against current market conditions. Use this step when you also want to watch the strategy run in real time.
- Real trading. Add the tested setup to a separate real-trading instance when you want to trade it with actual exchange funds.
The simulator step is optional. If you already know the strategy well, you can move from backtesting directly to a real setup with the position size you intend to use.
Backtesting depends on available historical market data, so the list of backtest exchanges is smaller than the list of exchanges supported for real trading. If your live exchange is not available, use a comparable market from one of the provided historical data sources.
Hosted Gunbot Live can run many supported backtests server-side without placing that workload on the remote trading bot. Futures strategies can also be explored through backtesting even though simulator mode is for spot trading.
See Backtesting in Gunbot Live and Forward-test spot trading with Simulator mode.