A pop-up window gives an overview of OnDemand’s capabilities.

You’ll notice a few changes that indicate you are not trading live money (figure 2). Past performance does not guarantee future results.

Image source: The thinkorswim ® platform from TD Ameritrade. When you are ready to start OnDemand, click the button in the upper right-hand corner of your platform (figure 1).įirst, click the “OnDemand” icon, found in the upper right-hand corner. So, log on to thinkorswim as you normally would. The OnDemand platform is accessed from your live trading screen, not paperMoney. Just keep in mind that results are hypothetical, and there is no guarantee the same strategy implemented today would yield the same results. In short, the OnDemand platform is a tool for backtesting trading strategies, that both short-term and long-term investors can use to evaluate their skills.įor example, if you are a day trader, you can see how your strategies would have held up during market-moving events like Fed announcements, earnings reports, or even the “Flash Crash”-which occurred intraday.įor those with a longer-term investment approach, you can see how a simulated portfolio would have performed when the overall market was bullish, bearish, or neutral, as well as how world events and macroeconomic news would have affected your profit and loss.

Find historical data as far back as December 6, 2009.

Watch the profit or loss of simulated positions as the “trading day” proceeds, or as you fast-forward to another date.

Simulate trading just as you would in a live trading account, except with historical rather than real-time data.

Watch tick-by-tick price changes for stocks, futures, forex, and options.

Run the backtesting software platform 24/7, including nights and weekends.

You can even see Level II quotes (essentially the NASDAQ order book). The tool has recorded virtually each market tick, so you can backtest stock, forex, futures-you can even backtest options trading strategies-all the way back to December 2009.

It lets you replay past trading days to evaluate your trading skill with historical data. Of course, reliving the past is just a fantasy, right? Well, not with thinkorswim OnDemand, a powerful stock backtesting tool available on the TD Ameritrade thinkorswim trading platform. How great would it be if you could go back in time and learn from your past mistakes? Maybe you would have taken that job offer, married your high school sweetheart, or passed on drinking that expired milk?

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