Various firms offer simulators, which allow you to papertrade. TOS is one. Ninja Tader is another. Look them up in the software section. Backtesting platforms allow you to program trading strategies or systems and see the results. They vary a lot in complexity and the level of programming knowledge necessary. Fidelity's Wealthlab , TradeStation and Amibroker are three off the top of my head. I'd suggest going through the software section here or googling backtesting software. I think one of the biggest benefits of backtesting is you can see the effect of stop loss levels. You can also convince yourself that indicator-based strategies will not work. Certainly it is possible to curve-fit a system and convince yourself it is the key to riches, then blow up when you try to trade it. the other side though is if a system won't work on historical data, why would you ever use it with real money?
Yep, as I said, backtesting might tell you what won't work, can't help much with what will work. All the best, Don
System trading does work. lt is possible to build robust strategies that deliver profits in real-time. Backtesting is important but the critical element is to to walk-foward the backtest results on out-of-sample ( OOS ) data. lf the OOS performance is acceptable then you may have a strategy that can hold up going forward. Trading is more art than science which is why a very good discretionary trader wil usually make more money than an algorithm but the average trader would likely benefit from backtesting their ideas and then walking forward the results. Trading, as opposed to investing, is a less-than-zero-sum game and to win you have to take money from another trader's pocket. Developing the skills to do this consistently requires years of dedicated effort for most of us Best of luck on your journey