Market Replay

Market replay is the core technology behind TestMax. Instead of paper trading on live markets where you have no control over timing, TestMax lets you replay any historical trading session at any speed. You see real price action unfold bar by bar, place orders, and get fills against actual historical prices.

How replay works

TestMax stores historical market data at high resolution for every supported instrument (the exact base resolution varies by instrument). When you select a date and press Play, the platform feeds this data to the chart one bar at a time, simulating the experience of watching a live market.

Here is what happens under the hood:

1. Data loading — When you select a date, TestMax loads the full session of price data at that instrument’s base resolution.
2. Aggregation — That base data is aggregated into the timeframe you selected (1m, 5m, 15m, etc.). Each candle is built from that base data.
3. Playback — As the replay runs, each candle of your timeframe is delivered to the chart as it completes, at the speed you choose.
4. Order evaluation — On every candle of your chart timeframe, pending orders (limit, stop, bracket) are checked against that candle’s open, high and low. If the fill condition is met, the order executes at the historical price.
5. P&L calculation — Open positions are marked to market on every candle, and your unrealized P&L updates as each one arrives.

Note

Because the replay uses actual historical data, the price action you see is exactly what happened in the real market on that day. This makes TestMax fundamentally different from random number generators or synthetic data — you are training on real market behavior.

Supported instruments

TestMax supports futures, forex, spot metals, and selected CFDs. NQ, ES, MNQ, MES, and GC futures currently require Pro. Free-enabled instruments such as EURUSD are available on Free; the picker shows current access.

Futures

Symbol	Name	Exchange	Tick Size	Tick Value	Trading Hours (ET)
NQ	Nasdaq 100 E-mini	CME	0.25	$5.00	Sun 6pm - Fri 5pm
ES	S&P 500 E-mini	CME	0.25	$12.50	Sun 6pm - Fri 5pm
GC	Gold Futures	COMEX	0.10	$10.00	Sun 6pm - Fri 5pm
MNQ	Micro E-mini Nasdaq 100	CME	0.25	$0.50	Sun 6pm - Fri 5pm
MES	Micro E-mini S&P 500	CME	0.25	$1.25	Sun 6pm - Fri 5pm

Forex

Symbol	Name	Tick Size	Tick Value	Trading Hours (ET)
EURUSD	Euro / US Dollar	0.00001	$1.00	Sun 5pm - Fri 5pm

Tip

These are the core contracts, not the whole catalogue — it also carries spot metals (XAU/USD, XAG/USD), more FX pairs, and index and energy CFDs, and it grows over time. Open Search instruments in Session Setup and highlight a row with the pointer or arrow keys — including a plan-locked one — to read its tick size, tick value, multiplier and margin in the details footer. Access is set per instrument per plan — every instrument is open to every plan unless it is restricted, and a restricted one appears in the picker with a badge naming the plan it needs.

Choosing an instrument

Each instrument has its own personality and price behavior:

• NQ (Nasdaq 100) — Highly liquid, tends to trend during the US cash session (9:30am - 4:00pm ET). Popular for momentum and trend-following strategies. Relatively high volatility with clean price action.
• ES (S&P 500) — The most liquid futures contract in the world. Smoother than NQ with less volatility per tick. Ideal for beginners and strategies that require tight spreads.
• GC (Gold) — Reacts strongly to macroeconomic events, US dollar movements, and geopolitical tensions. Often used by traders who prefer slower, more deliberate moves with occasional sharp spikes.
• LIGHTCMDUSD (WTI Crude Oil CFD) — The available oil replay instrument is a CFD with its own prices and specifications. CL futures are not currently offered.
• EURUSD — The most traded forex pair globally. Active during the European session (2:00am - 12:00pm ET) and the London-New York overlap (8:00am - 12:00pm ET). Good for traders learning forex price action.

Timeframes

Every chart timeframe is built up from each instrument’s base resolution. Minute-to-daily presets are available on plan-enabled instruments; seconds intervals require Pro and compatible stored data. NQ, ES, MNQ and MES currently start at 5s; GC and XAUUSD at 10s; the remaining public instruments at 1m. Check the picker for current resolutions:

Timeframe	Candle Duration	Best For
1s (Pro)	1 second	Only possible with 1s source data; no current public instrument provides it
5s / 10s / 15s / 30s (Pro)	Seconds	Scalping entries, execution practice
1m	1 minute	Scalping, micro price action, tape reading practice
5m	5 minutes	Day trading, intraday setups, most popular timeframe
15m	15 minutes	Intraday swing trades, cleaner structure
30m	30 minutes	Larger intraday moves, less noise
1h	1 hour	Intraday to multi-day context
4h	4 hours	Multi-day context and swing trading
1d	1 day	Daily structure, support/resistance levels

Custom timeframes (Pro)

Pro accounts are not limited to the presets. Type any timeframe you want — 7m, 45m, 90m, 2h, 3d — or switch to weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly bars for higher-timeframe structure. Which values are available varies by instrument; the picker shows the rule for the instrument you are on, flags a value that does not fit, and offers the nearest one that does.

Switching timeframes mid-replay

You can change the chart timeframe at any point during a replay without losing your place. Your exact position is preserved down to the bar: switch from 1m to 1h to check higher-timeframe structure, then switch back to 1m and continue from the precise candle where you left off. The chart also keeps your zoom level and visible time window across the switch, so the price action you were studying stays on screen. Like a jump or a resume, the switch reloads the chart window — see how far back you can scroll.

Context timeframes

Experienced traders often use multiple timeframes simultaneously. A common approach:

• Higher timeframe (1h or 4h) for directional bias and key levels
• Trading timeframe (5m or 15m) for entry conditions
• Lower timeframe (1m) for precise entry timing

You can set up multi-chart layouts (Pro) to view several timeframes at once — pick your trading timeframe as the primary chart and add up to three higher timeframes as context charts. See Charts & Drawing Tools for details on multi-chart configuration.

Playback controls

Play and Pause

Press the Play button or hit Space to start the replay. Candles form at the selected speed. Press again to pause. When paused, the market is frozen and you can analyze the chart, draw lines, configure orders, or review your position.

Step forward

Press the Step button or hit the right arrow key to advance exactly one candle. This only works when the replay is paused. Stepping is essential for deliberate practice — it forces you to analyze and make decisions before seeing what happens next.

Rewind

In a regular manual replay, choose Rewind beside the forward-step button, enter the number of candles, and confirm. The replay pauses at the earlier candle. Later candles disappear from every chart, and orders, positions and the account balance return to that point. Press Play or step forward to continue.

Select Don’t ask again when confirming to make future clicks on Rewind immediately go back one candle. This preference is remembered for your account in the current browser. Use the adjacent Rewind options arrow to choose a different candle count or uncheck the option and confirm to restore the dialog.

Trading actions after the chosen point are undone. This includes reopening a position that closed later, restoring its earlier size after a partial close, and restoring its protective orders. Undone trades and their linked journal notes are removed from Analytics; general session notes remain. Your current Auto Break Even setting stays unchanged.

The dialog shows the available candle count. Administrators set the maximum depth, which defaults to 1,000 candles. Rewind history starts when the session is opened and resets on a timeframe change or a data reload. A brief reconnect can retain it; reopening a session after its server state has been released starts new history. Already delivered candles do not consume the bar allowance again when replayed within that retained session.

Rewind is unavailable in Challenge Mode, daily challenges, battles, automated sessions and sessions you have ended. If the button is disabled at the start of a session, advance a candle to build rewind history.

Jump

The Jump button in the playback bar moves the playhead forward without watching the in-between candles (skipped bars are still processed, so pending orders and brackets fill correctly):

• Session start — one-click jump to the next Asia, London, or New York session open. The start hours come from Settings → Sessions (in UTC), so you can customize what each session means to you.
• Date & time — pick an exact date and time (in your display timezone) to jump to.

Jumps only move forward, and a jump reloads the chart window — see how far back you can scroll.

For distraction-free replay, you can also expand the whole trading screen with the fullscreen toggle in the account bar.

Speed control

The speed slider adjusts how fast the replay runs. In bar speed, the default, 1x closes two bars a second on any timeframe and each higher speed multiplies that. With Real time switched on (Pro), 1x plays each bar for its market duration instead — see below.

Speed	Description	Use Case
1x	Two bars per second, or one bar per its market duration with Real time on	Watch every bar form and react at a human pace.
2x - 5x	Moderate fast-forward	Speed through slow periods while still being able to react and trade.
10x	Fast-forward	Cover a full session quickly. Good for scanning for setups.
25x	Rapid	Quickly advance to a specific time period or area of interest.
50x	Maximum	Blitz through sessions for rapid pattern recognition. Best used with pausing at key moments.

Note

Playback speed is not plan-limited — free and Pro accounts both run from 1x to 50x. The Real time toggle is a Pro feature.

Real-time speed (Pro)

The Real time button next to the speed buttons switches the playback clock to market time. With it on, 1x plays each bar for exactly as long as it took in the market: a 5-minute bar takes five minutes, a 1-minute bar one minute, a 10-second bar ten seconds. The speed buttons still divide that, so 10x on a 5m chart closes a bar every 30 seconds.

A countdown below the primary chart’s latest price shows the actual wait until the next candle at your selected speed. It holds while paused and continues when you resume. For example, a 1m candle at 10x starts at 00:06.

• Pausing does not restart the bar. Pause three minutes into a 5-minute bar and it closes two minutes after you resume.
• Changing the speed mid-bar converts the remaining part of the bar at the new speed.
• The setting follows your account: it comes back on in your next session and after a reconnect.
• Weekly and monthly bars really do take that long at 1x. Use it on intraday timeframes.
• Switch it off at any time to go back to bar speed.

Speed recommendations by activity

Deliberate practice

Use 1x to 2x speed with frequent pausing and stepping, or switch on Real time (Pro) to feel the market’s own pace and build decision-making under time pressure.

Session scanning

Use 10x to 25x speed to scan through a session looking for specific setups or market conditions. Pause when you spot something interesting.

Volume training

Use 5x to 10x speed to get many trading reps in a short time. This is effective for internalizing chart patterns through sheer repetition.

Review mode

After trading a session, replay it at 25x to 50x to quickly review what happened, pausing at your entry and exit points to evaluate decisions.

Selecting dates

Date picker

Click the date picker in the top bar to open a calendar view. Available dates are highlighted — click any highlighted date to load that session. Dates without data are grayed out.

What to look for when picking dates

Not all trading days are created equal. Here are some types of sessions to seek out for practice:

• Trending days — Strong directional moves. Great for practicing trend-following entries and trailing stops.
• Range-bound days — Price oscillates between support and resistance. Practice fading extremes and managing entries within the range.
• High-volatility events — Days with FOMC announcements, CPI releases, or earnings reactions. Practice trading around news events and managing fast-moving markets.
• Low-volatility grinds — Quiet sessions where price barely moves. Practice patience, avoiding overtrading, and recognizing when to sit out.

Tip

For structured practice, pick the same type of session repeatedly. If you want to improve at trading breakouts, find 10 different breakout days and replay them all. Repetition on similar patterns accelerates learning.

Data availability

• Free accounts — Roughly the most recent 2 months of data per instrument, a rolling window that moves forward as new data lands. Anything older is locked.
• Pro accounts — Full access to the complete historical archive, spanning years of data across all instruments.

Replay and order execution

During replay, orders interact with the historical data stream exactly as they would in a live market:

• Market orders fill immediately at the current bid (for sells) or ask (for buys)
• Limit orders fill when the price reaches or crosses through the limit price
• Stop orders trigger when the price reaches the stop level, then fill as a market order
• Bracket orders manage both the stop loss and take profit automatically — whichever level is hit first triggers, and the other is canceled

Orders are evaluated against each replayed bar of your chart timeframe. A limit order fills when a bar trades at or through its price; a stop fills at the stop price, or at the bar’s open if the bar opens through it. The engine does not look inside a bar, so use a finer chart timeframe when fill precision matters.

Caution

Replay fills are based on historical prices and do not account for market impact or liquidity. In a live market, large orders can move the price. In TestMax, all orders fill at the historical price regardless of size. This is a known simplification that benefits practice speed but should be kept in mind outside the simulator.

Tips for effective replay practice

Start with one instrument

Pick a single instrument and replay it repeatedly across many different dates. Learning the personality of one market deeply is more valuable than surface-level exposure to many markets. Most professional traders specialize in one or two instruments.

Log your observations

As you replay sessions, take notes on what you observe. What time did the best move happen? What did the price structure look like before the breakout? Use the Trade Journal to record these observations for later review.

Replay your own bad trades

When you have a losing session, replay the same date again. This time, study where you went wrong and try to make better decisions. Replaying losing sessions is one of the fastest ways to improve.

Vary the speed within a session

Do not set one speed and leave it. Professionals use high speed to scan, then slow down or step when they spot a potential trade. This mixed-pace approach mirrors the rhythm of real trading — long stretches of waiting punctuated by moments of action.

Next steps

Charts & Drawing Tools Configure your chart and use 40+ drawing tools

Order Entry Learn all order types and bracket orders

Keyboard Shortcuts Speed up your trading with hotkeys