A backtest is a simulation of your trading strategy run against historical market data. Instead of risking real capital to test an idea, you replay the past and see how your strategy would have performed. Mobius backtests are powered by the same AI decision engine used in live trading, so what you test is what you deploy.Documentation Index
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How the backtest engine works
Data fetch
Mobius fetches OHLCV (Open, High, Low, Close, Volume) bars for your selected asset and date range from Alpaca Markets. For crypto, daily history is sourced from Yahoo Finance; intraday crypto bars use the Alpaca crypto feed.
Indicator calculation
All technical indicators referenced in your strategy (RSI, EMA, MACD, Bollinger Bands, etc.) are computed from the raw price data using TA-Lib. Alternative data (Reddit sentiment, congressional trades, fundamentals) is fetched from the appropriate provider and merged into the same timeline.
AI decision loop
For each bar in the date range, the AI receives: the current date, price, indicator values, and current position. It returns one of three actions — buy, sell, or hold — along with a reason and quantity. This decision loop runs bar by bar across the full backtest window.
Trade simulation
Buy and sell decisions are executed against the simulated portfolio. Commissions and slippage are applied as configured. The portfolio value is tracked at each bar.
Performance metrics
| Metric | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Total return | Percentage gain or loss over the entire backtest period |
| Annualized return | Return normalized to a one-year basis |
| Sharpe ratio | Risk-adjusted return — higher is better (above 1.0 is generally good) |
| Max drawdown | Largest peak-to-trough decline in portfolio value |
| Win rate | Percentage of trades that closed with a profit |
| Total trades | Number of completed buy/sell pairs |
| Average trade | Average profit or loss per trade |
Supported timeframes
| Bar frequency | Best for | Max backtest period |
|---|---|---|
| 1 min | Scalping, intraday | 30 days |
| 5 min | Short-term intraday | 180 days |
| 15 min | Swing intraday | 2 years |
| 30 min | Swing | 3 years |
| 1 hour | Swing / trend | 5 years |
| Daily | Long-term trend | 5 years |
Important limitations
- Backtest data reflects historical prices — it does not account for corporate actions (splits, mergers) in all cases.
- Alternative data (Reddit sentiment, congressional trades) may have limited history before 2020.
- Fundamental data updates quarterly, so intraday fundamental strategies have lower granularity.
Next steps
Configure a backtest
Set capital, date range, slippage, and commission before running.
Interpret results
Understand every metric in the backtest results panel.