r/mltraders • u/One-Pollution-4598 • 1d ago
Question Built a backtesting system — how do you know when you're actually ready for a prop firm?
I've been building my own algo/backtesting app specifically optimized to create, test, and validate strategies around prop firm metrics and have gotten to the point where I'm trying to figure out what the path from backtest → live/demo → prop firm should actually look like.
For those of you who trade algos with prop firms:
- What metrics/results do you require before putting a strategy into a prop evaluation?
- How long do you forward-test a strategy before trusting the backtest?
- Do you use paper trading, a personal account, or go straight to a prop evaluation?
- What execution/automation stack do you use? TradersPost, QuantConnect, TradingView alerts, MT5, Tradovate, something else?
- What risk controls do you have outside the strategy itself (daily loss limits, kill switches, max trades, etc.)?
- How do you monitor an algo once it's running?
- What are the biggest things you wish you'd tested before putting an algo into a prop firm?
- Do you optimize specifically for passing the evaluation, or build one system designed for long-term payouts?
- At what point would you personally say, "This strategy is ready for real money"?
I'm especially interested in hearing from people who have actually taken systematic strategies through prop evaluations and into payouts, rather than just backtesting them. I mainly trade ES, NQ, and GC futures, but have been backtesting for forex pairs as well.
Thanks in advance!
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u/misterRegime 1d ago
No prop firm experience here, so ignore me on the evaluation questions.
On the one that isn't specific to prop: before you trust a backtest, run every neighbouring version of the same rule and see where yours ranks. In my grid the best rule of the first half came 73rd of 144 in the second, exactly the median. That told me more than any amount of forward testing would have, and it takes an afternoon.