The Backtest Cup: rules | CE Market Solutions

What it is. A competition run by C.E. Market Solutions LLC. You trade a replay of NQ futures in our Lab, as much as you want, until the deadline (Fri, Dec 4, 11:59 PM CT). At the deadline every entry with a net R above zero has its strategy run over at least five years of NQ data by us. Final standings come from those runs.
Who can enter. US residents 18 or older with a verified account. One entry per person. Free to enter; no purchase necessary, and buying anything on the site does not affect standings. We accept up to 100 entries.
How to enter. Sign in, then submit a display name and your strategy in one sentence between Wed, Oct 28, 12:00 PM CT and Mon, Nov 2, 9:00 AM CT. We read every entry and accept the ones that describe a strategy on NQ we can test. Accepted entrants get the replay link by email on the morning the replay opens.
The replay. Each entrant's replay is drawn at random from our data. Trade as many sessions as you want before the deadline. The chart hides the calendar date; the clock and weekday are shown. Every trade needs a stop and a target when you enter it, and the fields we ask for (what you're trading, why) must be filled in. Trades without them don't count. You need at least 25 counted trades by the deadline to be in the standings.
4b. Labelling. Everything that influenced a trade idea must be on the chart and labelled before you enter: draw it, select it with the selection tool, name it and say why it matters. Enter with a stop and a target, and note why you exited. A trade missing its labels, stop, target or note does not count, and an entry without enough counted trades cannot place. See how to label your trades.
The board. During the replay a public board shows each entrant's display name, trade count, net R and drawdown. These are raw figures from your replay. Risk per trade is your original stop; trades are sized at one contract.
The cut and the full run. At the deadline, every entry with a net R above zero gets its strategy run over at least five years of NQ by us, free. Entries at or below zero are not run. There is no other cut.
Standings and prizes. Final standings are ordered by the figure published here before the replay opens (planned: net R after costs over 2021–2025). Prizes: 1st $250, 2nd $150, 3rd $100, paid by PayPal or bank transfer within 30 days of the final standings. Places 4 to 10 receive prizes; what they are is announced on the board before the final standings. Winners are responsible for any taxes.
Fair play and disqualification. The replay must be traded without looking up what the market did. We may remove an entry from the standings at our sole judgement if its data collection is not good enough (missing stops, targets or context, skipped fields) or if we suspect cheating or hindsight. Entrants confirm on the form that they must journal every trade and provide ample data to be allowed to win. One account per person.
Your strategy. You keep your strategy, and you can trade, share or sell it as you like. By entering you give C.E. Market Solutions LLC a permanent, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use what you submit — your one-sentence strategy, your replay trades, your labels, notes and drawings, and any run of your strategy we produce — for research, for improving our services, for content (videos, posts, pages) and for products, now and in the future, without further payment beyond the Cup prizes. Your display name appears on the board. If you gave an Instagram handle, we may mention it in our content; otherwise only the display name is used. Your email is never published.
Not advice. Nothing in the Cup tells you to trade any strategy. Standings are raw historical figures. Past performance in a replay or a backtest does not indicate future results.
Changes and decisions. We may change dates, the deadline, the threshold or the figure the standings use before the replay opens, by updating this page and emailing accepted entrants. Our decisions on standings and eligibility are final. Void where prohibited.