Create Your First Backtick

This walkthrough takes you from an empty form to a finished backtest: set your defaults, name the run, add a position, check commissions, queue it, and watch it complete.

Before you start: your defaults do the heavy lifting

New Backticks inherit their starting balance, test date range, and default commission profile from your Backtick User Settings, so a first run works without touching any of them. The Backtick Dashboard shows a Backtick User Settings summary card with your current Initial Balance, Start Date, End Date, Data Resolution, and Commission Profile, which is the quickest way to confirm what your next run will use. If you want a different balance or period, adjust the settings first; the Available Date Ranges callout there lists exactly how far back data goes for each symbol, and the Use Latest switch runs tests through the most recent available data.

Open the builder

From the navigation bar, open the Backtick menu and choose Create Backtick. The Create New Backtick page is organized into cards, and you can work through them top to bottom. Nothing runs until you queue the draft, so you can build in as many sittings as you like.

Name and tags

In the Name and Tags card, give your Backtick a descriptive name. You will thank yourself later when the library fills up, so include the essentials in the name, such as the underlying, the structure, and what you are testing. Optionally add Tags to group related tests; tags work across bots and Backticks, and you can read more in Organize Bots and Backticks with Tags.

Prefer to let the builder do the naming? Leave the field untouched and it names the run from the positions themselves: the words every position name shares, plus the range of whatever varies between them. Twenty-eight positions named "0DTE SPX 40/80" with different entry times become "0DTE SPX 40/80 11:32a-2:00p". The name refreshes as you add, remove, or rename positions, and the moment you type a name of your own, auto-naming steps aside for good. Names on runs you saved earlier are never rewritten.

Add positions

The Positions card is the heart of the backtest. You have two ways to add one:

• Select Bot/Strategy pulls in the settings of one of your existing bots, which is the fastest way to test something you already trade. You can select by individual bot or by strategy.
• Add Position creates a manual position from scratch, using the same controls as the bot builder: legs, strike targeting, entry timing, profit targets, and stops. The position editor walks through what differs from a live bot.

Each position belongs to a Backtick position account, a simulated account you create in the Add Backtick Position Account window with just an Account Name and an optional Description. Position accounts let one Backtick hold several groups of positions and report them separately.

Once positions are in the table, two per-position columns are worth knowing about even on a first run:

• Skip Days: dates a position should not trade. Use the row's control, or select several positions and Update Skip Days to apply a list to all of them at once, typed as a list or picked from a calendar.
• Overrides: a per-position toggle for slippage and execution delay overrides, when you want one position simulated under different fill assumptions than your account-wide settings.

Commissions and notes

In the Commission Profile card, pick the profile that matches what your broker actually charges, so results include realistic costs. The Commission Profile Summary shows what the selected profile will apply, and you can create a profile on the spot if you have none. See Commission Profiles in Backtick. Use the Notes card to record what you are testing and why; notes travel with the Backtick, and a month from now you will not remember otherwise.

Save, queue, and watch it run

Click Save Draft to store your work. Drafts appear on the Backtick Dashboard under Draft Backticks; queue one from there and confirm in the Queue Draft Backtick window with Queue Backtick. The run is added to the queue and executes when resources are available.

The Current Queue Status card tracks progress while it runs, and finished runs land under Recent Backticks. How long a run takes depends on the length of the test period and the number of positions; the Runtime column in the Backtick Library shows the actual processing time of every finished run. When it completes, open the results and continue with Read Your Backtick Results.

A good first run

For a first Backtick, keep the experiment small so the result is easy to interpret: one position, pulled from a bot you already understand or built as a simple defined-risk spread, with your real commission profile and your default date range. Once you trust what you are reading, iterate: copy the run, change one setting, and compare the two side by side.