GLOSSARY · METATRADER
What is modelling quality?
Modelling quality is the Strategy Tester's estimate of how faithfully it reconstructed price movement during a backtest, expressed as a percentage.
What it means
A high figure means the tester had sufficient data to model intrabar movement rather than guessing it. A low figure means large parts of the test were interpolated, and any result from such a run should be treated as indicative at best.
Why it matters
The percentage is not a quality score for the strategy and is frequently misread as one. It describes the data, not the edge — a 99% modelling quality backtest of a bad strategy is an accurate simulation of losing money.
What this changes in practice
The deeper point is that modelling quality only measures fidelity to historical prices. It says nothing about spread variation, slippage, requotes, or whether your broker would actually have filled those orders. Those gaps are why live results underperform even a well-modelled backtest.
Related terms
- Tick dataTick data records every individual price change rather than summarising a period into a bar, and…
- Strategy TesterThe Strategy Tester is MetaTrader's built-in backtesting and optimisation engine, which replays …
- BacktestingBacktesting runs a strategy against historical data to estimate how it would have performed, and…
- SlippageSlippage is the difference between the price a trade was expected to execute at and the price it…
Educational information only, not financial advice. Trading leveraged products carries substantial risk of loss. Last updated 2026-08-11.