Multi-timeframe mode lets you view a higher timeframe for bias and a lower timeframe for entries while backtesting, with both advancing together. It reproduces the top-down process most serious strategies use, and it does so honestly - the higher timeframe only ever shows candles that had genuinely closed at that moment.
What it does
Instead of a single chart, you work with two synchronized timeframes of the same instrument. The higher one - say daily or four-hour - sets your directional context. The lower one - say one-hour or fifteen-minute - is where you time the entry. As you step the replay forward, both move in lockstep, so what you see on each is exactly what you would have seen at that point in real time.
Why the sync matters
The classic multi-timeframe backtesting mistake is reading a completed higher-timeframe candle that had not actually closed yet when you took the entry. That is hindsight, and it makes strategies look far better than they are. Because multi-timeframe mode advances both charts together, that leak is structurally impossible - you cannot see a higher-timeframe candle before it would have closed.
How to use it
- Enable multi-timeframe mode when you set up the session and choose your higher and lower timeframes.
- Read the higher timeframe first to set your bias, using only what is visible.
- Drop to the lower timeframe and take the entry only if it agrees with the bias.
- Step forward and repeat, letting both charts advance together.
This is the same top-down order you would follow live, which is exactly why practicing it in a backtest builds transferable skill.
Important: keep the discipline of deciding bias before entry. The mode protects you from seeing the future, but you still choose the order of your own decisions - read context, then execute, never the reverse.
Who should use it
Any trader whose strategy is top-down: trend-following that needs a higher-timeframe trend, structure-based approaches, and supply-and-demand setups that map zones on a higher timeframe and refine entries below. If your strategy genuinely uses one chart, single-timeframe mode is simpler; if it uses two, this mode is the only honest way to test it.
Try a top-down test
Start a session in the simulator, enable multi-timeframe mode, and run your top-down strategy the way you actually trade it. You will get an honest read on whether your higher-timeframe bias truly improves your lower-timeframe entries - a question single-chart backtests simply cannot answer.
Multi-timeframe mode FAQ
What is multi-timeframe mode?
A mode that shows a higher timeframe for bias and a lower one for entries, both advancing together so the higher timeframe only shows candles that had actually closed.
How does it prevent hindsight?
Both timeframes step forward in sync, so you can never see a higher-timeframe candle that had not finished forming at the moment of your entry.
When should I use it?
Whenever your strategy is top-down - deciding direction on one timeframe and timing entries on another, as trend, structure, and supply-and-demand strategies do.