Paper trading and backtests

Separate simulated funds from real funds

Paper trading records simulated orders, not signed blockchain transactions. Paper cash is expressed in SOL in the balance controls, while Open trade position size is in USD. Fifty paper SOL is not a $50 allocation.

Set a paper balance only when intentionally changing simulation cash. A balance reset or top-up is not trading profit and must not be used to hide losses.

Understand fills and costs

Paper execution models costs and slippage, applies cash/position limits and records fees and rent. Read the actual receipt and settled net P&L, not only a price-change percentage or open-position mark.

Simulation cannot reproduce every live route, transaction failure, latency, liquidity change, priority fee or market impact. A stop trigger is not a guaranteed execution price. Live orders remain subject to the app’s release availability and safety checks.

Read coverage before performance

A backtest may use recorded signals or reconstruct public wallet activity and historical prices from available research. A new graph does not need its own past trades to be tested.

Inspect the replay window, coverage, missing price paths, assumptions and truncation. Current rankings or later token peaks cannot stand in for evidence that existed when a signal arrived.

Missing historical social, flow or runner-stage evidence can make a result inconclusive. It is not proof of loss or profitability; an authorized bounded paper experiment can provide forward observations.

Compare like with like

1. Keep paper and live results separate.
2. Compare the same graph version and the same observation window.
3. Use closed, realized net results for conclusions; mark open positions separately.
4. Include losses, failed costs and incomplete data. Rent refunds are not profit.