2.2 Set up your first strategy: Portfolio Backtesting

Step 1: Enter your assets and weights

Start by entering tickers such as AAPL, MSFT, or VTI and their allocations. You can enter up to 25 assets.

• You can lock weights using the lock icon.
• Remove rows via the delete button.
• Use the "Autofix Allocation" dropdown to:
  • Evenly distribute weights across all tickers
  • Scale current values up to 100%
  • Automatically fill missing weights

You can also switch to Shares Mode by enabling the "Use Shares" toggle if you want to define your portfolio based on units rather than percentages.

You can also enable:

• Custom Expected Returns: Set your own return assumptions
• Custom Volatility: Provide your own volatility values

Both fields are optional and help you reflect more advanced expectations.

Step 2: Set timeframe and benchmark

Under "Options," choose the backtest period.

You can go back 1, 3, 5, 10, 20, or 30+ years, or define custom start and end dates.

The default benchmark is SPY, but you can select alternatives like VT, VXUS, or QQQ.

Step 3: Rebalancing & Cashflow

Backtests simulate how your strategy would have behaved over time.

• Choose how often you want the portfolio to be rebalanced (monthly, quarterly, etc.)
• Define an initial investment (e.g. $10,000)
• Set up optional cashflows:
  • Fixed Contributions
  • Fixed Withdrawals
  • Percentage Withdrawals

This lets you model real-world investment behavior like monthly deposits or retirement withdrawals.

Step 4: Advanced settings

• Base Currency: Switch between USD and EUR
• Risk-Free Rate: Used for Sharpe Ratio and other metrics (e.g. 2.5%)
• Reinvest Dividends: Enabled by default
• Fill Missing Price Data: Fills small gaps in historical price series

Step 5: Number of forecast years (Monte Carlo Simulation)

If you have a Premium or Professional plan, you can run Monte Carlo simulations to model thousands of potential future outcomes.

• Choose up to 50 forecast years
• Select Return Estimation Method: Sample Mean, Exponentially Weighted Mean, Trimmed Mean, CAPM, etc.
• Select Covariance Estimation Method: Shrinkage, Robust Estimators, Semi-Covariance, and more

Step 6: Compare with another portfolio

Click "Add Portfolio" to add a second strategy.

You can then compare both side by side with your chosen benchmark.

When ready, click Submit to run the analysis.