Experience usually means years of trading through different markets and conditions. However, you can gain that same experience much quicker.
One of the best ways is back testing. You go back two or three years and trade forward from there, so you can effectively trade three years of price in two or three hours.
Key takeaways
Back testing lets you trade across two or three years of charts in a couple of hours instead of waiting years.
Test a single strategy on a single pair at a time so your results are clean and comparable.
Log wins, losses, how much, and how long each trade took, because a spreadsheet lets you sort and calculate in ways paper cannot.
The market changes often, so test recent data like last year to get more accurate results.
Look at your entry, your stop loss and your take profit to see whether each is too early, too tight or too far.
The same strategy can be 50 percent on one pair and 70 percent on another, so back testing tells you which pairs to trade.
What back testing actually gives you
You run a simulation, start trading from a point in the past and fast track through it. You trade how you normally would and see what happens.
If you lose a trade, you go back and check the variables to see what went wrong. If you win, you learn what works well. That is the experience you are building.
Something like this was not available a little while ago. It is a fantastic tool, and every trader should take advantage of it.
How to back test effectively
Test one strategy at a time on one pair at a time. For example, test a strategy on GBP USD and record the results.
Write them on a spreadsheet, not on paper, because a spreadsheet lets you sort the numbers and run calculations. Log whether the trade won or lost, by how much, how long it took to hit take profit or stop loss, and how far it went into drawdown.
I would not go too far back either. The way the market works changes quite often, so testing something recent like last year gives you much better accuracy.
“You can trade for three years in two or three hours.”
Reading your entry, stop loss and take profit
Your three variables are entry, stop loss and take profit. If price does not even reach your entry before moving your way, you are entering too late. If it goes into a lot of drawdown, you are entering too early.
If your stop loss keeps getting hit and then price goes your way, it is too tight and needs widening. If there is a lot of space to your stop, your risk reward suffers and you may need to tighten it.
For take profit, if price does not reach it, bring it a little closer. If price flies well past it, you are leaving too early and there is more to capture.
Make it a routine and pick your pairs
Take a picture of every trade, because trading is very visual. You need the numbers, but you also need to see the placement of your entries, exits, take profits and stop losses.
Treat it like an athlete’s training. Do it often to practice and to get insights that help you tweak your strategy.
When I tested my strategy on GBP USD it had a 50 percent win rate, so I dropped it. On GBP JPY it had 70 percent, so that is all I trade between the two. Without back testing I would have blamed my strategy instead of the pair.
Once back testing shows your edge, compare reliable prop firms to trade it on Propvator.