- Open the simulator and pick US500 from the instrument list - or the Nasdaq 100, Dow 30, Russell 2000, DAX and the rest of the 105.
- Choose a start date and timeframe. The chart hides everything after it, so you read the same bars a trader had at the time rather than a chart you already know the answer to.
- Replay bar by bar and place trades with the mouse. Drag the stop and target on the chart and the lot size follows from your risk percent.
- Read the report. Win rate, expectancy, profit factor, Sharpe and drawdown across the session, saved to your trading journal so the sample accumulates.
S&P 500 · US500
Backtest the S&P 500 free, in your browser.
Replay the S&P 500 bar by bar from 2013 to this week, place trades with the mouse, and get win rate, expectancy, profit factor and drawdown at the end of the session. No download, no futures account, no card - US500 is unlocked on the free plan along with all 105 instruments.
The data
Thirteen years of S&P 500 history, already loaded.
Tick-derived OHLC bars from the same archive our published research is computed on. Lower timeframes cover shorter windows because the underlying data is far denser - the table is exactly what you can replay today.
| Timeframe | History starts | Roughly | Plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| D1 / W1 / MN | May 2013 | 13 years, 3,000+ bars | Free |
| H4 | May 2013 | 13 years, 19,000+ bars | Free |
| H1 | May 2013 | 13 years, 71,000+ bars | Free |
| M30 | July 2017 | 9 years, 100,000+ bars | Free |
| M15 | February 2022 | 5 years, 100,000+ bars | Free |
| M5 | February 2025 | 20 months, 100,000+ bars | Free |
| M1 | April 2026 | 5 months, 139,000+ bars | Free |
Coverage as of October 2026 and growing nightly. US500 is the CFD on the cash index and trades nearly 24 hours, so overnight and pre-market moves replay as real bars.
Measured
Points went up six times. Percent barely doubled.
Median US500 daily range in index points and as a share of price, every trading day from 2014 to September 2026.
| Year | Median daily range | As % of price | Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 16.5 pts | 0.86% | 257 |
| 2015 | 22.5 pts | 1.07% | 256 |
| 2016 | 18.8 pts | 0.90% | 254 |
| 2017 | 12.8 pts | 0.52% | 255 |
| 2018 | 30.0 pts | 1.10% | 259 |
| 2019 | 26.8 pts | 0.92% | 260 |
| 2020 | 55.0 pts | 1.69% | 260 |
| 2021 | 42.8 pts | 0.99% | 259 |
| 2022 | 83.4 pts | 2.02% | 259 |
| 2023 | 47.1 pts | 1.10% | 260 |
| 2024 | 52.4 pts | 0.98% | 261 |
| 2025 | 70.7 pts | 1.13% | 260 |
| 2026 (to Sep) | 78.4 pts | 1.09% | 191 |
3,444 US500 daily bars, 2013-05-23 to 2026-09-25, FxBacktest archive, weekend stubs excluded.
The typical S&P day covered 12.8 points in 2017 and 78.4 points so far in 2026 - six times as far. As a share of price it went from 0.52% to 1.09%. Most of the growth in points is just the index tripling. A stop written as "15 points" was a wide stop in 2017 and is noise today, so any multi-year test should size stops in percent or in ATR, not in points.
Volatility clusters by regime, not by decade. 2022 was the widest year in the archive at 2.02% a day, and the single widest day was 9 April 2025, at 13.17% from high to low. 15.4% of all days ranged more than 2%; if your sample sits mostly in 2017 or 2021, it has almost none of them.
When S&P 500 movesmedian hourly range by 3-hour block, UTC, 2021-2026
33,395 S&P 500 hourly bars, 2021-01-04 to 2026-09-25, FxBacktest archive. Each block is the average of its three hourly medians. The 12:00-15:00 block holds the US data releases and the 13:30-14:30 UTC cash open, depending on daylight saving.
Before you test
Three things that break a forex strategy on the S&P.
Each links to a longer read.
Original research
The overnight gap
How often does the S&P open away from the prior close, and does the gap fill? Measured on four US indices.
Read the study Original researchSize in percent, not points
Compare the S&P with the Nasdaq or a currency pair only after dividing by price. The range study does exactly that across markets.
Read the study GuideEnough trades per regime
Split the sample by year before you trust the total. Each regime needs enough trades on its own to mean something, or the headline win rate is mostly one good year.
Read the guideHow it works
Four steps, about a minute.
More markets with their own page: Nasdaq · Dow 30 · EUR/USD · Bitcoin · Silver · GBP/USD · USD/JPY · Ethereum · Crude oil · DAX 40 · GBP/JPY · AUD/USD. All 105 are on the backtest hub.
Questions
S&P 500 backtesting FAQ
Is S&P 500 backtesting really free here?
Yes. US500 and all 105 instruments are unlocked on the free plan, with every timeframe, full trade execution and the session report. Nothing to download, no card. Paid plans add more saved sessions, more simultaneous indicators and deeper analytics - not the S&P chart or its history.
How much S&P 500 history can I replay?
Daily, 4-hour and hourly bars from May 2013. 30-minute data starts in July 2017, 15-minute in February 2022, 5-minute in February 2025 and 1-minute in April 2026.
Is this the SPY ETF or the index?
US500 tracks the S&P 500 cash index as a CFD, quoted in index points and trading nearly around the clock. It is not the SPY ETF, though its moves are almost identical in percentage terms.
Can I backtest other US indices?
Yes. The Nasdaq 100, Dow 30 and Russell 2000 are on the same free plan with the same replay engine and report - all listed on the backtest hub.
Risk disclaimerTrading foreign exchange, CFDs, cryptocurrencies and other leveraged products carries a high level of risk and is not suitable for every investor - losses can exceed your deposits. Everything on this page is educational content, not financial advice. Backtest and simulator results are hypothetical: they do not represent live trading and past performance does not guarantee future results.