Prior to taking a position using an untried trading strategy most traders usually paper trade the strategy in order to identify whether or not the strategy is appropriate. The trader documents the entry price, monitors the trade, documents the price where the position closed out (that is, level where the stop loss, take profit or position close would trigger) and evaluates the strategy following several iterations of this process. The evaluation would take into account the overall profitability of the strategy, the maximum amount of draw down, average length of time the position kept the trader in the market, etc. Obviously the longer period of time the trader is able to paper trade the position the more information he or she would have about the strategy. XMIM has the ability to enhance the paper trade process by allowing researchers to evaluate systematic trading strategies over a long period of time.

At the beginning of this manual we explained that there are two major types of questions or queries that may be posed in the software. Up to this point you have spent a substantial amount of time using the SHOW/WHEN query. The SHOW/WHEN query provides quite a bit of utility and will be used for most of your research ideas. The other type of query, the ORDER query, is a very powerful research tool and will build onto your research ideas created by using the SHOW/WHEN query by back-testing your research strategies. The ORDER query allows you the ability to buy or sell your security when certain conditions exist and to exit out of your position when certain other conditions are present.