Simulated account

A simulated account is an evaluation account that exists only inside the trading software on the user's machine: strategies place orders against it, the application decides the fills from the bars or ticks it holds, and nothing is sent to any broker. It is the environment in which scripted strategies run before any live execution is considered.

Senzoukria · Glossary · Updated September 2026

How the fill is decided

With no exchange and no broker, the application has to model execution itself. A bar-based model fills market orders at the next available price and evaluates stops and targets against subsequent bars; if a stop and a target both fall inside one bar, OHLC data does not say which was hit first, so the engine must state its policy. A tick-based replay can order events more finely but still cannot reconstruct queue priority for a resting limit order. Whatever the model, its assumptions belong in the results record.

  • Entry timing: at the close of the signal bar, or at the next open.
  • Ambiguous bars: stop-first, target-first, or exclusion.
  • Costs: commissions and slippage are inputs, not observations; a simulated account that applies none will flatter the strategy.

What a simulated account is good for

  • Checking that a strategy's code does what its author thinks: entries, exits, sizing and risk stops fire in the intended order.
  • Running the same rule forward on live data without any financial exposure.
  • Producing a trade list that later analysis, such as a prop-firm rule simulation or a Monte Carlo reshuffle, can consume.
  • Separating strategy bugs from execution problems before a broker is involved.

In Senzoukria

The Scripting screen carries the warning: "This strategy trades the SIMULATED evaluation account on this machine only. It can never reach your broker — the platform places no orders at all." Strategy templates such as the breakout example are marked "Simulated account only". The guided tour describes the path: write indicators and strategies in TypeScript, Python or C++, backtest them on your bars, then run them on the simulated account. The performance note in the results space states that the historical model does not replay ticks inside a trade and that no commission is deducted because the simulated account applies none, so costs must be added in the analysis. Reaching a broker requires the separate autopilot, armed explicitly and never persisted between sessions.

Common mistakes

  • Reading simulated fills at touched limit prices as achievable in a live queue.
  • Forgetting that the simulated account applied no fees when comparing to a prop-firm target.
  • Treating a green simulated run as permission or readiness to arm live automation.
  • Tuning many configurations on the simulated account and reporting only the winner.

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Frequently asked questions

Does a simulated account need a broker connection?
No. It runs entirely on the machine, on the bars or ticks the application already holds. A market feed is needed to run a strategy forward on live data, but no trading permission and no account credentials are involved, because no order leaves the software.
How do simulated results reach the journal?
Simulated and backtested trades produce a trade list with entry, exit and size. That list is what performance analysis and prop-firm rule simulation consume. Keep it with the rule version, parameters and coverage report so the research record shows what was known when each decision was taken.

Keep reading

Strategy researchTest a trading strategy, from observation to challenge rulesDefine an observation, question it with the copilot, write a rule and explore costs, drawdown and fictional challenge limits in an interactive example.Quant · Start hereQuant trading for beginners: from idea to backtestDefine a testable rule, choose suitable data and evaluate later periods after costs.Order flow · HubOrder flow trading: the complete guideThe hub. What order flow is, what it shows — aggression, delta, imbalance, absorption, liquidity — and the tools that read it, each linked to a full guide.