Backtick User Settings and Simulation Realism

Backtick User Settings controls the defaults every new Backtick starts from and the simulation realism knobs that decide how closely your backtests imitate live trading.

Open it from the Backtick menu under Backtick User Settings. Change what you need, then click Update to save. Reset restores every field to the values it had when the page loaded, and the Dashboard button returns you to the Backtick Dashboard. The Dashboard also shows a read-only Backtick User Settings card with your current Initial Balance, Start Date, End Date, Data Resolution, and Commission Profile, so you can spot-check what your next run will use without opening this page.

Defaults for new Backticks

These values prefill the Create Backtick builder so you are not retyping them for every run:

• Starting Balance: the initial account balance a new Backtick begins with. Percent and leverage sizing scale from this number, so pick a balance that matches the account you plan to trade.
• Default Commission Profile: the commission profile applied to new runs. A summary of the selected profile appears beside the dropdown, with an Edit Details link.
• Date Range Settings: the default start and end dates for new runs. The Available Date Ranges callout lists exactly how far back data goes for each symbol. Turn on Use Latest and your Backticks run through the most recent available data instead of a fixed end date.

Execution fidelity switches

These switches trade precision for realism. The more of them you enable, the closer your simulated fills behave to a live bot:

• Coerce Price: adjusts trade prices to the legal price increment instead of precise price estimates. Real orders can only fill at valid increments, so leaving this on keeps fills honest.
• Detect Strike Conflicts: enables strike conflict detection during backtesting, the same check live bots make when long and short legs land on the same strike.
• Leverage Min Quantity of 1 and Percent Sizing Min Quantity of 1: when leverage or percent sizing calculates zero contracts, use a minimum quantity of one instead of skipping the trade. Match these to your live Bot Preferences so simulated sizing mirrors what your bots would really do.
• SPX Entry Quantity Limits: caps position entry quantities at the 49 contract bot limits for SPX positions, mirroring how live entries are capped.

Slippage and execution delay overrides

By default, fills are modeled from the speed settings on each position (entry speed, stop speed). These override sliders replace those defaults with fixed assumptions. Each has an Override toggle; leave it off to use the speed setting defaults.

• Slippage Override: separate Entry Slippage, Exit Slippage, and Stop Slippage sliders, each 0 to 200 percent of the bid/ask spread. The scale reads 0% as Best Price, 50% as Mid, 100% as Worst Price, and 200% as twice the bid/ask spread. Higher values are more pessimistic, so a strategy that still profits at 100 percent slippage has real cushion.
• Execution Delay Override: separate Entry Delay, Exit Delay, and Stop Delay sliders, each 0 to 60 seconds, simulating time between the signal and the fill.

Results display

• Hide Filtered Trades: hides trades that your entry rules filtered out from Backtick results, so the trade list only shows entries that would have actually opened.
• Confirm Edit and Rerun: asks you to confirm before a completed Backtick is reset to draft for editing, which protects finished results from an accidental click.

Saved runs, unsaved runs, and the purge delay

The Backtick Library keeps every run, but unsaved runs do not live forever:

• Mark New Backticks Saved: when this is on, every new run lands in your Saved tab automatically. When it is off, new runs stay in the Unsaved tab until the purge delay expires.
• Purge delay: 1 to 90 days. When the delay expires, unsaved runs move to Trash and are permanently deleted after 7 more days. Anything in Trash can be restored during that window.

See Copy, Rerun, and Import Backticks for how the Library tabs, restore, and cleanup buttons work day to day.

Backtick Position Accounts

Position accounts let you organize Backtick positions into named buckets, useful when one run models several real accounts. Click Add Account to create one (name up to 30 characters, optional description up to 64), and use the pencil icon to rename it later. The table shows each account's usage: accounts that are In Use by a position cannot be removed until nothing references them.