Backtesting

Test an options strategy on years of crypto derivatives history with one request.

The Backtesting API runs an options strategy over history and returns what would have happened: the equity curve, every fill, the positions they belonged to and the full set of performance statistics. You describe the strategy as JSON; there is nothing to install and no data to download.

curl -X POST https://api.sandmark.com/backtesting/v1/backtest \
  -H "X-API-Key: $SANDMARK_BACKTEST_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data @covered-call.json

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What you can express

Any structure up to 8 legs

Calls, puts and dated futures, long or short, with strikes chosen by delta, moneyness or price. Straddles, strangles, spreads, condors, butterflies, collars and calendars.

Expiry selection

Front monthly, the nth listed expiry, a target tenor, or only certain weekdays, set for the whole structure or per leg.

Exit rules

Close on days to expiry, premium decay, P&L, a leg’s delta, IV, spot or days held, measured against entry or the high-water mark.

Hedging and costs

Delta, vega or gamma hedging with futures and options. Mark or bid/ask fills, slippage, taker fees and the exchange’s fee cap.

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Ground rules

Everything is denominated in coin

Inverse BTC and ETH options are quoted and settled in the base coin, so that is the ledger: equity, premiums, fees and P&L are in BTC (or ETH). equity_usd and spot are reported alongside for reading in dollars.

History starts in September 2021

Option marks, greeks and implied vol exist from September 2021 for BTC and ETH, February 2024 for SOL and March 2024 for XRP. How far back you can start depends on your add-on plan.

Warnings are part of the result

Silent data holes are how an options backtest lies. Degraded fills, carried-forward marks and structures the chain could not resolve are counted in warnings and diagnostics on every result. Read them before you trust a number.

Results come back in four formats

JSON for code, a self-contained HTML report with charts, a zip of CSVs, or an Excel workbook. Pick one with format.

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Next steps

Quickstart

Run your first backtest in five minutes.

Strategy specification

Every field of the request body.

Recipes

Five tested strategies to copy and adapt.