Your First Strategy

Step-by-step walkthrough to create, backtest, and analyze your first trading strategy with Backtrex in under 5 minutes.

Overview

In this guide you will build a simple Moving Average crossover strategy, backtest it on EUR/USD, and read the results. No code required.

Step 1: Open the Strategy Builder

From the dashboard, click New strategy, or open an existing empty one. You land on a chart, with the Builder panel on the right.

Three zones matter:

  • Top bar: asset, timeframe, and the Indicators button
  • Chart: your workbench, where indicators are displayed
  • Builder (right): your entry conditions, exit conditions, and Money Management

Step 2: Choose the market

At the top of the chart, select EUR/USD as the asset and D1 as the timeframe.

That timeframe becomes the default reference for your conditions, and the one the backtest will run on.

Step 3: Add your indicators to the chart

Click Indicators in the top bar and add two Simple Moving Averages:

  1. SMA, period 20
  2. SMA, period 50

Both curves appear on the chart, and in the chart legend.

Step 4: Write the entry condition

In the Builder on the right, with the Buy direction selected:

  1. In the Entry section, click Add a buy condition
  2. Choose the Crossover mode
  3. Left criterion: SMA 20 · Direction: crosses above · Right criterion: SMA 50

The condition appears in plain language: When SMA 20 crosses above SMA 50.

That is your entry rule: buy when the fast average crosses above the slow one.

Step 5: Write the exit condition

Still in the Buy direction, in the Exit section, add the mirror condition:

When SMA 20 crosses below SMA 50

Step 6: Set up risk management

At the bottom of the Builder, in Money Management:

  1. Set a Stop Loss of 50 pips
  2. Set a Take Profit of 100 pips
  3. Check the R:R ratio: it shows 2

Money Management is shared between the buy and sell directions.

Step 7: Run the backtest

In the bottom bar:

  1. Click the gear icon to open the configuration
  2. Choose the period (5 years, for instance) and the starting capital
  3. Click Run backtest

If the button is disabled, hover it: it tells you exactly what is missing.

Results appear within seconds:

  • Net result: overall profit/loss percentage
  • Win rate: percentage of profitable trades
  • Profit factor: gains divided by losses
  • Maximum drawdown: largest peak-to-trough decline
  • Sharpe ratio: risk-adjusted return measure
  • Equity curve: how your portfolio value evolved over time

Step 8: Analyse and iterate

Back in the Builder, the Trades tab lists every trade and displays them on the chart. Click a row to jump to the matching candle and understand each entry and exit.

If the results are not satisfying:

  • Adjust the SMA periods (try 10/30 or 20/100)
  • Add a filter — for instance RSI > 50 in AND, to confirm the trend
  • Change the Stop Loss and Take Profit distances

Change one thing at a time and re-run: that is the only way to know what actually improved the result.

Don't know what conditions to write?

Do it the other way round. Using the toolbar to the left of the chart, arm Long and click candles to place two or three trades that look like your setup. The Deduce rules pill appears at the bottom of the chart: Backtrex analyses what your trades have in common and suggests the matching conditions.

Next Steps