Blog · Guides

How to backtest ICT concepts: journal 50 setups first

Test your ICT rules before risking money: write a checklist, use bar replay, journal 50 setups in R and read the results honestly before going live.

2026-11-05 · 4 min read · by the ICC Charts team (how we write)

Reading about order blocks and gaps is easy. Knowing whether your version of them has any edge is harder. The only honest way to find out is to test the rules on old charts before you risk money. This guide gives a simple routine: write the rules, journal 50 setups, then read the numbers.

Why 50 setups?

Ten trades prove nothing. A good week or a bad week can happen to any rule by luck. Fifty setups is not a magic number and it does not prove anything on its own, but it is enough to see patterns in where your rules work and where they do not. More is better.

Step 1: write the rules first

Pick one idea and write it as a checklist that anyone could follow. For example, a simple reversal idea:

  1. Higher time frame bias is clear (see daily bias).
  2. Price sweeps liquidity inside a killzone.
  3. A market structure shift closes in the bias direction.
  4. Entry in a fair value gap or order block, on the correct side of the dealing range.
  5. Stop beyond the sweep. Target set before entry.

If a rule says "looks strong", rewrite it. Replace feelings with things you can check on the chart.

Step 2: use replay so you cannot peek

The biggest backtest mistake is looking at the future. In the terminal, use the Replay tool (bar replay). It shows only the bars that have closed up to the replay time, then you step forward one bar at a time or press play. You can start from a chosen bar or a date and time. Decide your entry, stop and target before you press next.

Step 3: record every setup, not only the good ones

Use a spreadsheet or the terminal's journal panel. For each setup write:

Skipping losers makes the result look better than it is. Log the setups you were not sure about as well, and tag them.

Step 4: practise the execution with paper trading

Once the rules look workable, place the trades on the terminal's paper trading with a stop and a target on the chart. This tests the part that a spreadsheet cannot: whether you follow your plan when candles move in real time. Our guide to the Chart Challenge game is another low-pressure way to train your eye on real candles.

Step 5: compare with the strategy tester

The terminal also has a strategy tester that runs one scanner model over 30, 60 or 90 days and shows an equity curve. It is not a replacement for your manual journal, but it is a useful second view. Read how to use the model scanner and look at the rules of each model on the models page. Remember that a test on past data does not promise anything about the future.

Step 6: read the numbers

After 50 setups, add up your results in R and ask simple questions:

Change only one thing at a time, then test another batch. If you change five rules together you will not know what helped.

Common mistakes

Going live

When the journal looks consistent, start on a demo account, then trade the smallest size you can. Keep journaling. A backtest is a starting point, and live trading will always feel different.

Education only. ICC Charts is not affiliated with Inner Circle Trader (Michael J. Huddleston); these ideas are explained in our own words. Past results do not predict future results. Trading involves risk; practise on a demo account first.

Try it on a live chart

Open ICC Charts in your browser, free, with the ICT and VSA layers and the model scanner. Or practise on past charts in the free Chart Challenge game.

Open it on the chart → Play the chart game

New articles and the daily chart challenge on Telegram → t.me/icccharts

Track it in your journal: Write each of the 50 setups down in R with the free R-multiple calculator on ICC Zillas, the ICC trading journal.

More articles