Backtest · AMZN
Backtest AMZN — Candle by Candle
Amazon carries the most misread chart in this catalogue, and it is entirely an artefact of arithmetic. The 20-for-1 split in June 2022 means every bar before that date is drawn at roughly a twentieth of the price it actually traded at — around $100 rather than around $2,000. That is correct, it is what back-adjustment is for, and it is the single most common reason people think an equity dataset is broken when it is not.
Why the pre-2022 chart looks wrong and is not
Back-adjustment divides every historical price by the split ratio so that a percentage move in 2019 is comparable with a percentage move today. Without it, the split date prints a 95% single-session collapse, and any stop, any drawdown figure and any risk calculation running through that date is nonsense.
The practical consequence for your test is that you must work in percentages or in R, never in dollars, on this stock more than any other. A $2 stop meant something completely different in 2019 than it does now, and a backtest that averages the two is measuring nothing.
The second Amazon-specific point is seasonality, and it is testable rather than folklore: this is a retailer whose fourth quarter matters disproportionately, and whose January report carries it. Whether that shows up as an exploitable pattern in your rules is a question the archive can answer in an evening — it contains eight of them.
What the AMZN data actually is
The archive runs from May 2018 to the most recent session we hold, on every timeframe from one minute to monthly. It is open from the first chart — there is no plan that unlocks more of it, and no shorter window for people who have not paid.
Equity data here is regular hours only — 09:30 to 16:00 New York, no pre-market and no after-hours. That is not a gap in the data, it is what an equity session is, and it has a consequence worth planning for: every trading day opens with a gap rather than continuing from the previous close, so any rule you carried over from an index future or an FX pair is about to meet a discontinuity it has never been tested against.
Prices are split-adjusted throughout, so a chart of 2019 shows what you would compare against today rather than the raw tape. Getting this wrong is the classic silent equity-backtest bug: an unadjusted series prints a 90% single-day crash on the split date, and a stop-loss rule tested through it produces numbers that mean nothing.
How to backtest AMZN without fooling yourself
Fix your unit before you start. Log every trade in R, and set risk with the position size calculator rather than with a fixed dollar stop, or the pre-split half of your sample will quietly dominate the result.
If you want to test the seasonal question, do it properly: define the window in advance, apply it to all eight years including the ones that went against you, and count. Choosing the window after looking is the definition of the mistake described in the common backtesting mistakes.
Compare against GOOGL, which had its own 20-for-1 split in the same month. Two identical adjustments on two different businesses is a clean way to confirm the artefact is arithmetic and not the market.
Frequently asked questions
Is AMZN backtesting free?
Yes, and there is no card and no trial timer. You get Amazon back to May 2018, with every tool the product has, for 2,000 candles of replay — about two hours of stepping through a chart. After that you top up for $5, or pay $19.99 once and never think about it again. Nothing you buy expires. The 20-for-1 split of June 2022 is back-adjusted, which is why the older bars are priced around $100.
Why does Amazon's 2019 price look like $90 instead of $1,800?
Because the series is split-adjusted. The 20-for-1 split in June 2022 divides every earlier price by twenty so that percentage moves stay comparable across the whole file. An unadjusted chart would show a 95% crash on the split date and would break every stop-loss test running through it.
Does the archive cover Amazon's 2022 drawdown?
Yes, in full, on every timeframe. It is one of the more instructive stretches in the catalogue for a trend-following rule, because the decline was persistent rather than violent.
Can I test a seasonal or earnings pattern on AMZN?
Yes — the archive holds eight full fourth quarters and their January reports. The discipline that makes it meaningful is defining the window before you look and then applying it to every year, including the ones that did not cooperate.
Open AMZN and start stepping
Real Amazon history, split-adjusted, one candle at a time. No account, no card, 2,000 candles free.
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