Frequently Asked Questions

A research and backtesting tool for Smart Money Concepts (SMC) crypto strategies. You configure your strategy (entry timeframe, market structure, FVG validation, filters, etc.), and the platform:

• Backtests it on historical Binance data
• Reports every trade it would have taken, with a full per-trade audit log
• (Paid plan) Tracks the same configuration on live Binance data via Strategy Monitor — observational forward testing, no capital at risk

What it is not: a signal service, a course, an indicator marketplace, or a promise of profits. It's infrastructure for honest strategy analysis.

Self-directed crypto traders who:

• Trade SMC concepts (order blocks, FVGs, BOS/CHoCH, liquidity sweeps)
• Want to know if their strategy ideas have a real statistical edge before risking capital
• Are tired of indicator marketplaces that sell black boxes with no historical testing
• Value honest answers over false promises

Not for: signal-followers, get-rich-quick seekers, or anyone unwilling to do the work of configuring and testing their own ideas.

Indicator marketplaces sell you a tool that draws levels on a chart. They rarely tell you whether those levels produce a profitable edge over thousands of trades.

Brokers are legally required to disclose that 70-90% of their retail customers lose money. The crypto retail space is likely similar or worse. Many indicator buyers fall into that bucket — and the seller never has to refund them, because "the indicator drew the levels as advertised."

We're built around the opposite premise: show the user the truth about their strategy before they risk a dollar. If your strategy doesn't survive forward testing, our verdict says so. If it survives but rarely fires, our sample-size warning says so. If it survives sustained live forward-testing, you have observational evidence to work with.

No. We don't curate trade picks, broadcast premium signals, send Telegram/Discord alerts, or recommend specific entries. We're a research platform for self-directed traders.

The Strategy Monitor logs events when your personally configured strategy fires on live data — that's a research log of your own setup, not a signal service. You decide if/how to act on any of it.

When you select a confluence strategy (e.g., 1H + 4H), the HTF zone acts as a one-time qualifier at OB formation. A 1H order block is only tracked if it overlaps ≥70% with an active 4H order block of the same direction.

After that qualification, two retest modes are available:

• Retest LTF zone (default): The retest trigger uses only the LTF (1H) zone. Price wicks into the 1H zone → entry fires, regardless of where in the 4H zone. This matches the standard SMC interpretation — HTF qualifies the structure, LTF triggers the precise entry. More entries.
• Retest overlap zone only: The retest must land inside the intersection of LTF and HTF zones (the "sweet spot"). Stricter, higher-conviction entries, but significantly fewer setups. Useful when you want maximum confluence confirmation at the moment of retest, not just at OB formation.

The mode setting has no effect on single-TF strategies (15m, 1H, 4H standalone) since there's no HTF overlap zone to compute.

Annual subscribers can select 2-4 pairs at once and run the same strategy configuration across all of them in a single submit. The combined report shows side-by-side results — PnL, win rate, profit factor, trade count — per pair.

Why it's useful: A strategy that works on BTC may not generalize to SOL or DOGE. Different pairs have different volatility, liquidity, and structural behavior. Combo Backtest helps you quickly identify which assets a setup actually fits before forward-testing on Strategy Monitor.

Limitations: Direct Backtest only (forward testing across 4 pairs would take 20-40 minutes). Maximum 4 pairs per combo. Strategy pair-restrictions still apply (e.g., 3m strategies are BTC/ETH only).

From combo backtest to combo monitor: When your combo backtest finishes, you can launch a Combo Monitor with one click — forward-testing the same configuration live across all the successful pairs. Each pair counts as 1 of your 7 Annual monitor seats. Pause/Resume/Stop happens at the combo level (all pairs move together).

Each pair in a combo also exists as a standalone Run in your history — you can view the full individual report for any pair by clicking "View full report" on the combo page.

Most likely: nothing's wrong with the platform OR with you. You've discovered something important.

Pure SMC on retail crypto often doesn't have a statistically robust edge in current conditions. Markets are efficient. Retail patterns get arbitraged. This is the honest answer most platforms won't give you.

If you've tested 20+ configurations across 3+ pairs and nothing produces ROBUST:

• The platform is doing its job. It's protecting you from losing real money on curve-fit strategies.
• Try different markets or timeframes. Some pairs are more inefficient. 4H BTC might fail while 1H ETH works.
• Lower expectations. A ROBUST 0.95-PF "break-even" strategy with strict risk management beats 95% of retail traders (who lose).
• Accept that SMC may not be YOUR edge. Different traders suit different frameworks. Knowing SMC doesn't work for you saves years of losses.

Sample size determines confidence:

• <20 trades — Insufficient. Win rate could be off by ±20%. Don't conclude anything.
• 20–49 — Low. Rough but indicative. ±10% confidence.
• 50–99 — Acceptable. Trends become trustable. ±7%.
• 100+ — High confidence. ±5% or better.

Our Strategy Monitor displays a confidence indicator that updates as your live trade count grows. A strategy firing 15-20 trades during your forward-test produces interesting observations but not statistically reliable conclusions.

No — and you should expect them to be worse. Backtests model commission and slippage but cannot replicate:

• Order-fill delays
• Partial fills during volatile moves
• Larger-than-modeled slippage at SL hits
• Your own psychology (skipping signals, overriding stops)
• Exchange-specific quirks and outages

A reasonable rule: discount your backtest's Net PnL by 30-50% to estimate realistic live performance. If you still see acceptable returns after that discount, the strategy has a margin of safety. If not, it doesn't.

After you backtest a strategy and get a verdict, you can start a Strategy Monitor on it (Pro tier only). The monitor:

• Stores a snapshot of your exact strategy configuration
• Pulls live Binance data each time you open the dashboard
• Runs your strategy logic on the new data
• Logs every event (entry, TP hit, SL hit) into a personal event log
• Compares live performance to your backtest expectations

Default monitor target is 180 days, adjustable from 30 to 365 days based on your strategy's trade frequency and your own assessment. Forward-test duration is NOT a proxy for "ready to trade live" — you decide when you've seen enough observational evidence.

There's no universal answer. The right duration depends on your strategy's trade frequency, the variety of market conditions during your test, and your own risk tolerance.

A few useful reference points (not rules):

• A 1H strategy firing 100+ trades in 6 months gives a workable sample size for win-rate estimation
• A 4H or 1D strategy firing 20 trades in 6 months produces interesting observations, not statistically reliable conclusions — consider extending
• Markets cycle through trends, ranges, and volatility shocks — seeing your strategy across more than one regime is more valuable than time elapsed

The platform does not endorse trading after any specific duration. Forward-test duration is NOT a proxy for "ready to trade." Sample size, regime variety, and your own assessment of consistency matter more than time elapsed. You decide when you've seen enough.

No. Monitors require an active Pro subscription. When your subscription lapses, your monitors freeze (the event log is preserved, but no new live signals are recorded). When you renew, the monitor resumes refreshing from where it left off.

Two separate things to understand:

• Subscription period — how long you've paid for. Monthly = 30 days, Annual = 365 days. This is when you have access to the platform and your monitors actively refresh.
• Monitor target duration — how long each monitor is set up to track (default 180 days, user-adjustable 30-365). This is a methodological target, not a promise of access duration.

Practical implication: If you subscribe Monthly ($14 for 30 days) and start a monitor with a 180-day target, the monitor will only track for 30 days before your subscription expires. The 6-month plan ($69) gives you a full 180-day observation window — useful if you want to run extended forward-testing or multiple cycles.

If you renew within a reasonable window, frozen monitors resume tracking. If you let a subscription lapse for months and then renew, the monitor will catch up by processing all candles since it last refreshed — but you'll have a gap in real-time signal coverage.

• Free tier: 0 (Strategy Monitor is a paid feature)
• Backtest Pro Monthly: 3 active monitors
• Backtest Pro Annual: 7 active monitors

Stopped/paused monitors don't count toward your active limit. You can stop one and start another anytime — your historical event logs are preserved.

Almost certainly not. Strategies fire when their conditions align — that may take hours to days depending on:

• Entry timeframe (1H fires more often than 4H)
• Filters applied (more filters = fewer setups)
• Current market conditions (chop vs trend)

The refresh banner on the detail page tells you the latest bar processed. If that timestamp is recent (within the last hour for 1H strategies), the system is working — just waiting for setups.

No. Strategy Monitor is a research tool. It logs events from your personally-configured strategy on live data — that's a record of what would have happened in paper trading, not a recommendation to act.

Whether you trade live based on monitor observations is your decision alone. We don't push notifications, don't curate "best" strategies, and don't claim predictive value.

See /pricing for the full comparison. Summary:

• Free: 25 backtests/month, all 20 pairs, all strategy structures, full interactive reports (kept 30 days). No Strategy Monitors.
• Forward Testing — Monthly ($14/mo): 3 Strategy Monitors, 50 backtests/month, Multi-Pair Combo, PDF + CSV export, reports kept indefinitely
• Forward Testing — 6 Months ($69): everything above + 7 Strategy Monitors, covering a full 180-day observation window

Pro plans also include all new strategy conditions, filters, and parameters we ship — every month. Your subscription gets better over time, not just renewed.

Yes, within our 7-day satisfaction window (under 5 backtests used), or in legitimate service-failure scenarios. See full refund policy for details.

Yes. Monthly subscriptions cancel anytime — you keep access until the end of your current billing period. Annual subscriptions also cancel anytime; access continues until the annual period ends. We don't refund the unused portion of an annual plan.

Cancellation is done through your Gumroad library.

Payments are processed by Gumroad. They accept Visa, Mastercard, Amex, PayPal, and most regional payment methods. Indian users can pay with INR cards. International users supported globally.

No. SMC ChartSense is a research and backtesting tool, not an investment advisory service. We don't recommend trades, picks, or positions. All trading decisions are yours alone, made at your own risk.

No, and we don't need to be. SMC ChartSense operates as a technology platform in the same legal category as other widely-used charting, backtesting, and strategy-analytics platforms — providing tools for self-directed traders to configure and monitor their own strategies. We do not provide regulated investment-advisory services that would require SEBI Research Analyst or Investment Adviser registration.

If you need regulated investment advice, please consult a SEBI-registered Investment Adviser. We are not one.

We store your email, subscription tier, backtest run history, and Strategy Monitor event logs. We don't store payment data (Gumroad handles that). We don't sell user data. We don't run ads.

You can request data export or deletion by emailing support@smcchartsense.com.

20 USDT-margined perpetual pairs from Binance: BTC, ETH, SOL, BNB, XRP, DOGE, ADA, LINK, AVAX, MATIC, DOT, ATOM, LTC, NEAR, OP, ARB, APT, SUI, FET, INJ.

Across timeframes 15m, 1H, 4H, 1D (plus 3m for BTC/ETH only on the scalp strategy). New pairs added based on demand.

Available SMC strategy templates (each fully configurable with parameter toggles for FVG validation, market structure, sweep, etc.):

• SMC OB Retest 15m (single-TF)
• SMC OB Retest 1H (single-TF)
• SMC OB Retest 4H (single-TF)
• SMC OB Retest 3m + 15m confluence (BTC/ETH only — scalp tier)
• SMC OB Retest 15m + 1H confluence
• SMC OB Retest 1H + 4H confluence
• SMC OB Retest 4H + 1D confluence

Each strategy is fully configurable: FVG validation (required or not), market structure (BOS / CHoCH / both), FVG gap size, liquidity sweep filter, HTF EMA trend filter, ATR volatility filter, hour-of-day filter, RSI, CVD alignment, and order-block engine parameters (pivot length, lookback, anchor mode).

Binance Futures public API. We fetch USDT-margined perpetual klines (candles) across the supported pairs and timeframes. Real volume-based CVD is computed from taker buy/sell base volume.

Data is refreshed regularly. Strategy Monitor pulls latest klines each time you open the dashboard.

Yes — Pro subscribers can download branded PDF reports of any backtest from the report page. PDFs include the equity curve, drawdown analysis, monthly returns, trade list, and configuration snapshot.

Email support@smcchartsense.com with your idea. We prioritize features based on subscriber demand — Pro users' requests get top priority.