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Forward testing

Definition

Running a strategy on live data before committing real capital.

Why it matters

Forward testing captures slippage, spread and your own hesitation, all of which backtests miss.

Example

A strategy that backtested at 1.8 profit factor but forward-tests at 1.05 usually lost the gap to spread, slippage and fills the backtest assumed were free.

How to track it in a journal

TradeStack calculates the core performance numbers — win rate, average win and loss, profit factor, expectancy, drawdown and consistency — automatically from imported trades, so forward testing stops being something you estimate and becomes something you read.

Related terms

Expectancy
The average profit or loss you can expect from each trade over a large sample.
Profit factor
Gross profit divided by gross loss.
Win rate
The share of your trades that close in profit.
Average win
Total profit from winning trades divided by the number of winning trades.

Questions that use this term

Keep reading

Trading journal guides
Expectancy, profit factor, drawdown, backtesting and the PDT rule.
Free trading calculators
Position size, risk-reward, expectancy and options profit.
Expectancy calculator
Expected profit per trade from your own numbers.
Broker CSV export guides
Step-by-step exports for Tradovate, NinjaTrader, IBKR and more.
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