Thread: Should I stop doing manual backtesting?

Hi everyone, I've been doing manual backtesting in Excel and TradingView for a month with a very basic price action strategy. It's literally taking away hours of sleep. Is it really worth doing this or is there something I'm missing?

Just to be clear: I don't use any bots or scripts. Everything I put on hand, input, output, SL, TP, and result. I'm obsessed with accuracy, but I don't know if this is helping me or just feeding my doubts. How do you do that?

Honestly, if you're pointing every operation at hand like you're in the '90s, you're gonna hate trading before you learn anything useful. Automate at least one part. Your time is worth more.

Don't worry, we all started like this. I also did that and believe me, although it seems useless, it helps you understand the market in depth. Yes, if after 200 trades you don't see improvement, change focus.

Backtesting manual? Brother, that sounds more like medieval torture than learning. Use software, optimize your time. The market will not give you a medal for being the most disciplined with Excel.

I understand your frustration. I was at the same point. At first it helps a lot to create visual criteria, but then you have to evolve. If not, it becomes counterproductive.

Look, if you don't like it, don't do it. This is not a religion. Manual backtesting is for those who enjoy analyzing every last tick. If it's not your case, look for semi-automatic methods.

It worked for me to do 100 manual operations per pair. No more. Then already automated with Forex Tester and changed my life. You lose the fear of error and gain clarity in your system.

Thank you for the answers. I�m actually at that point where I don�t know if my obsession with precision is making me lose sight of the essentials. Maybe try Forex Tester, I�ve read it enough.

Do it! Forex Tester is a before and after. Maybe it's gonna cost you a little bit to learn at first, but once you master it, it's like accelerating your learning curve by 3x.