Forward Testing

Forward testing is trading a strategy live with small size or on a demo account to verify it behaves as expected before scaling up. It is the bridge between backtesting and full live deployment, and it generates the real execution data that backtesting cannot provide. A journal is the core tool for forward testing: you record every trade, review whether the live results match expectations, and check that you can actually follow the rules under real conditions. Dusk Analyst supports this with tags for strategy and notes per trade, plus analytics that show whether the forward-test results are consistent.

Use a separate journal account for the forward test, log every paper trade with rule-adherence tags, and review the win rate before deciding to trade it live.

Forward Testing is one of the metrics your journal should track, because it shows up in every review: it changes how you size trades, how you read your equity curve and how honestly you can assess an edge. Log it alongside each trade (or let your journal derive it from entry and exit data) so patterns - not anecdotes - drive your decisions. The glossary entry above explains the term itself; the journal's job is to make it measurable in your own history.

Dusk Analyst calculates Forward Testing from the trades you log or sync, and shows it per account and across time in the journal views and reports. On the free tier, log trades manually or import CSV and the metric updates automatically; on Pro, the MT4/MT5/cTrader connectors keep the data flowing without entry. Weekly reports on Pro surface how Forward Testing is trending, so it's part of the review loop rather than a number you have to compute by hand.

For funded traders, Forward Testing isn't optional - prop firms build their rules around it (daily loss limits, maximum drawdown, consistency requirements), and violations end accounts. A journal that tracks Forward Testing per account keeps the compliance picture clear: you can see your buffer in real time instead of discovering at payout time that a rule was breached. Dusk Analyst keeps funded accounts separate with their own starting balance and limits, so Forward Testing stays visible against the firm's actual numbers.

Yes. The free tier costs $0 forever and includes two accounts, manual trade entry and CSV import - enough to journal a live account properly, with win rate, expectancy, drawdown and equity curve all calculated for you. There is no credit card required to start. Pro ($25/month flat) adds unlimited accounts, MT4/MT5/cTrader auto-sync, AI insights on your trading (1,000 trade-analyses a month), monthly reports and full export, and has a free trial of up to 30 days (card required). The pricing is deliberately simple: one plan, one price, no per-feature upsells.

Yes. Dusk Analyst Pro has a free trial of up to 30 days: 30 days if you start it within an hour of signing up, 15 days within 24 hours. A card is required to start it, nothing is charged on the day it starts, and when the trial ends Pro is $25/month unless you cancel. We email you a reminder before the trial ends. You can cancel anytime from Billing in the app; cancelling during the trial ends it straight away, nothing is charged, and your account goes back to the Free plan with every trade kept. There is one trial per account. The trial includes everything in Pro: MT4, MT5 and cTrader auto-sync, monthly reports, unlimited account books, 1,000 AI credits a month for AI Insights and CSV export. Start it in the app at app.duskanalyst.com, where it is offered whenever you open a Pro feature such as Connectors, and from the plan card in the sidebar. The Free plan is separate: it needs no card and stays free forever.

Yes - CSV import is available on every plan, including free. If you've been tracking trades in a spreadsheet, broker export or another journal, export the CSV from wherever it lives and import it into Dusk Analyst; the journal matches it against your accounts and keeps your history continuous. Import is also the fallback for platforms that don't run MT4, MT5 or cTrader. For MT4/MT5/cTrader terminals, Pro auto-syncs going forward and the EA backfills any trades your terminal missed while it was off. Any platform that exports a CSV of your trade history works. Dusk Analyst recognises TradingView, Tradovate, cTrader, MT4 and MT5 exports on sight; for anything else you map your columns once and that parser is saved for next time. Comma, semicolon and tab files are all handled, day-first and month-first dates are detected from the file itself, and any row that cannot be read is listed for you rather than dropped quietly.

Pro includes 1,000 AI trade-analyses every month. One credit covers one trade, so asking a question about a 40-trade week costs 40 credits and you can keep asking. The allowance resets on the 1st of each month and the counter sits in the top bar of the app, so you always know where you stand. Narrowing a question to one account or a shorter date range makes the same allowance go much further. Free accounts get a small number of AI credits to try AI Insights, alongside the full journal, analytics and weekly reports, and Pro's free trial (up to 30 days) includes the full monthly allowance.