The Investor Diary Entry #83: September 6, 2025
My journey in trading Forex is a personal diary of trial, error, and constant learning. In this entry, I want to document my experience with a specific tool that has become a foundational layer in my education: a free forex backtesting software. This is not a recommendation, but a log of what I am doing to understand my strategies and, more importantly, a crucial step on how to learn risk management in Forex trading.
Why I Added a Backtesting Layer
I have always believed that a demo account is a crucial step before live trading. However, I recently identified a gap in my process. A demo account runs in real-time, which means it can take weeks to see if a new idea has any merit. I needed a way to test concepts more efficiently. This is where the concept of backtesting entered my routine. For me, it acts as a preliminary filter. Any new idea—a new indicator, a rule change, or a completely different strategy—now goes through a backtesting process first. This allows me to quickly see how an approach might have behaved historically before I invest even demo account time into it.
Discovering an Accessible Tool
My search for a practical solution led me to a web-based platform. I needed something straightforward and without a significant financial commitment. The tool I settled on for this experiment is a free backtesting software called TradersCasa. The fact that it requires no download and offers a functional free version was exactly what I was looking for as a learner. It serves as my digital sandbox for testing hypotheses.
My Process for Testing a Strategy
Here is a step-by-step account of how I used this backtesting trading software recently:
- Setting Up the Session: I created a new session, naming it after the strategy I was testing. I selected the currency pair (EUR/USD), set a hypothetical starting balance ($1,000), and chose a start date in the past.
- Charting the Idea: The software loaded the historical data. I then applied the rules of the strategy I was exploring, which involved identifying key market structure levels. I meticulously drew the high and low of a trading range and used price notes to mark important points like an inducement level or a specific order block I wanted to watch.
- Running the Simulation: This is the most insightful part. I set the chart to play forward at different speeds. Watching the price action interact with the levels I defined provided immediate visual feedback on the validity of my ideas. A crucial tip I learned was to save my chart layout frequently, as the free version is ad-supported and interruptions can happen.
- Integrating Risk Management: This is where theory met practice. Before placing a simulated trade, I stepped away from the software to use a separate risk calculator. I determined that for my $1,000 account, I would risk no more than 0.5% per trade. By defining my stop-loss distance in pips, the calculator gave me the exact lot size to use. Inputting this calculated size into the trade panel of the backtesting software made the exercise feel real and cemented the habit of pre-defining my risk. This hands-on repetition is my current method for how to learn money management in Forex trading; it moves the concept from abstract theory to tangible practice.
- Analyzing the Outcome: I let the simulation run, observing whether the trade hit its take-profit or stop-loss. The value isn’t in one trade but in repeating this process over different market conditions. It helps me see the frequency of setups, the typical risk-to-reward outcomes, and the overall behavior of the strategy.
The Value of a Free Tool in Learning
Using this free backtesting software has been about education, not just validation. The limitations of the free version, like advertisements and a limited data history, are a fair trade-off for the functionality it provides at no cost. It allows me to fail fast and learn faster in an environment with no financial consequence. For those looking to explore similar tools, the one I’ve been experimenting with is available online. I found it useful to see the developer’s overview of its features on their official page.
Conclusion: A Step in the Learning Process
This software is not the final step in my preparation. It is the first filter. By using it, I can quickly discard fundamentally flawed ideas and only take the most promising ones forward to my demo account, where the next challenge—trading psychology—awaits. This free forex backtesting software has become an indispensable part of my learning diary, providing a structured way to test, learn, and ultimately understand the intricacies of strategy and risk before any real capital is ever on the line.
The Investor
Saturday 6 September 2025
About The Author
I started to look into individual stocks in January 2022. I created this diary initially for myself to track my investing progress, and second, as a place where I can share my ideas publicly hoping that others will share their ideas and learn from each other, and lastly as an online business where some links that I share are affiliate links, and if anybody bought anything by clicking those links, I will get a commission based on that successful sale, which of course will not affect the price that you are buying the product or service at.
This blog is also part of something else I’m learning: blogging. I’m using a platform to learn that part. And if you’re interested in that it is called Wealthy Affiliate, look it up.
For more detailed information on my affiliate disclosure, please refer to the Full Affiliate Disclosure page.
Furthermore, this site is in no way or form giving any financial or investing advice, nor is it encouraging or discouraging people to buy or sell any financial instrument. This is a personal diary in which I track my own progress and share it for informational, educational, and entertainment purposes.