Automated Backtesting tests your strategy for you. You describe your rules in plain English, and TradeZella's engine runs them across historical data — and shows you every trade it took, so you can verify each one against your strategy.
Video Walkthrough:
Check out our video walkthrough of Automated Backtesting here:
🔗 https://www.loom.com/share/4d5be575b2124af6ac62bea0477aca18
Open Automated Backtesting
Log into TradeZella, click Backtesting in the left sidebar, then choose Automated Backtest.
Describe your strategy or pick a template
There are two ways to start:
Describe your own strategy from scratch — write your strategy in your own words: your setup, entry rules, exits, and risk.
Pick a pre-filled template — choose a ready-made strategy (for example, Asia Range Manipulation + CHoCH on MNQ). Templates fill in the strategy description, symbol, session, period, and risk settings for you. You can edit everything after.
💡 Pro Tip: The more specific your description, the better your results. See How to Describe Your Strategy for Automated Backtesting for the full list of concepts, entry rules, and exit options you can use.
Set your backtest controls
Along with your strategy description, you can set:
Symbol — what you want to backtest
Session — New York, London, Asia, the entire day, or a custom session
Period — the date range to backtest. Backtests on 1-minute candles can cover up to 2 years.
Trading Days — which days the engine can take trades
Risk — position sizing type (fixed contracts, risk % of balance, or risk dollar amount), your sizing value, and a daily trade limit
Stop Loss — fixed points or fixed percentage (options depend on your symbol), as a fixed stop or a trailing stop that follows price by a fixed offset, by ATR, or along an EMA
Profit Taking — fixed points, fixed percentage, or an R multiple
Additional Exit Controls — close all trades at the end of the day, or at the end of your selected session
If a setting conflicts with your written strategy, the setting wins.
Review your setup
Click Continue, and TradeZella builds the full setup from your description. Review each section before running — everything is editable:
Strategy Logic — your strategy written out as rules
Entries — your long and short entry conditions
Exits — stop loss anchor, take profit anchor, stop loss type, trailing stop settings, any partial exits, offsets, day/time exits, and max hold time
Trade Controls — trading days, max trades per day, and session timings
Plus Swing Emphasis (how strict the engine is about structure), Indicators, and Position Sizing.
Run the backtest and review your trades
Run the backtest to see your results. Along with your performance stats, you get the full list of trades the engine took. Open any trade to see it on the chart and fact-check it against your rules — so you know exactly how your results were made, not just a final number.
Things to know
Minimum position size is 1 contract. Size is calculated from your risk and stop size and rounded down — but never below 1. On a small account with a wide stop, a single trade can risk more than the percentage you set.
Session exits. If you set a trading session, all trades close at the end of it unless your strategy says to hold them to the stop or target.
Indicators. You can describe general conditions, but you can’t add custom indicators that TradeZella doesn’t support.
Plan limits. Available on Pro and Ultra. Pro includes 10 runs per month, Ultra includes 100. Each completed run counts toward your limit — but reruns with modifications don’t, and a run with no valid results doesn’t either.
Zella AI credits. Backtest runs don’t use your Zella AI credits — they’re counted separately. Even with no credits left, you can keep running backtests until you hit your plan’s run limit.
Longer 1-minute periods. If your period is longer than 2 years on 1-minute candles, TradeZella stops the run before it starts and it does not use one of your runs. To test a longer period, split it into two automated backtests.
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If you have any questions or need assistance, feel free to reach out to our support team — we're here to help!