A tool that would
rather disappoint
you now.
StrategyLab is made by Agent Creative, a small studio in Connecticut. It exists because finding out that an idea does not work should cost nothing.
Backdrop: real BTC-USD daily candles, 1 Oct 2024 to 29 Sep 2026, Coinbase Exchange.
Why it
exists
Most trading ideas sound right. A crossover, a dip to buy, a breakout to chase. The only way to know is to run the rule against what actually happened, with costs, and look at the answer without flinching.
Tools for doing that tend to fall into two camps. Some want you to write code. Others make everything look like a winner, because a winning backtest sells subscriptions.
StrategyLab is built for the person in between: someone who trades their own money, has an idea, and wants a straight answer before funding it. So the strategies are explained in sentences. The first line of every result compares it with simply holding. And when a result rests on nine trades, the tool says so in the second line.
Our own example loses to buy & hold by thirty points. We left it that way.
How it
is built
- The engine
- Plain JavaScript with no dependencies. The same code runs the backtest, the replay and live paper trading, so they cannot disagree.
- Correctness
- Indicators and fills are unit-tested against cases worked out by hand, plus property checks on random data: money is conserved, nothing looks ahead, the same input gives the same output.
- Prices
- Coinbase Exchange’s public market data, with Binance’s public data as a fallback. The tool states which one a test used.
- Charts
- TradingView’s open-source Lightweight Charts, credited in the tool.
- Where it runs
- The calculations run in your browser. The server stores accounts and saved work and fetches price history.
- Tracking
- None. No advertising scripts and no third-party analytics on this site.
What it
will not do
- Place a real tradeThere is no broker connection and no "go live" button. It is a simulator.
- Tell you what to buyNo signals, no tips, no "top strategies" list. It tests the idea you bring.
- Promise a returnA backtest describes one stretch of the past under stated assumptions. The tool repeats this under every result.
- Hide the costsFees and slippage are on by default, and the benchmark pays them too.
- Run your own codeEight built-in strategies with adjustable settings. If you need a custom rule engine, this is not it.
- Trade while you are awayLive paper trading runs in your browser tab and stops when the tab closes.
Who
makes it
Agent Creative is a small web design and development studio in Connecticut. We build websites and web tools for clients, and a few products of our own. StrategyLab is one of those.
If something in the tool is wrong, unclear or missing, we would like to know. Send a message and a person will read it.
The example is already loaded.
Open the tool and it is running an SMA crossover on two years of real Bitcoin prices. Change one setting and watch the result move. No account until you save.
Simulated results. Hypothetical performance has limits and is not a guarantee of future returns. Educational use only, not investment advice. Risk disclosure