# Test a strategy in Forge

## What you need

1. An Oathra account. Creating one is free.
2. Price history for one symbol, exported from MetaTrader. Oathra ships no sample prices. [Bring your price history](https://oathra.dev/docs/how-to/bring-your-price-history)
3. A first test on your own price history needs storage, and the free plan includes none. Storage starts at 40 credits a month. Credit packs are coming soon.
4. Credits for the data check and the test. Both are charged by the minute, and Forge shows the cost of a test before it starts. A standard test uses about 13 credits an hour.
5. The numbers of a test are on both plans. The verdict is on the paid plan, \$29 a month.

Open the [Tester](https://oathra.app/forge/tester). It has a Build tab for one configuration, and Queue and History tabs for runs already sent.

## Fill the configuration

The Build tab lists its sections down the left, and any of them can be opened at any time.

1. **Instrument & data** picks what is tested, on which data and over which period.
2. **Parameters** lists the strategy's settings and decides, for each one, whether it is one value or a range.
3. **Costs** holds commission, spread, financing and conversion.
4. **Risk & capital** holds the starting balance, how a position is sized and the limits on exposure.
5. **Orders** and **Execution** decide how an entry reaches the market and how a fill is priced.
6. **Method** and **Gates** show the checks the run will apply.
7. **Review & run** shows everything the run is, in one place.

The panel on the right shows what the run will cost before it starts.

> **Trap.** Costs are the assumption most likely to be wrong. Set them to what your broker charges before you trust a profit.

## Run it

Press **Run test** in Review & run. The run goes to the Queue tab while it waits and while it runs, and to History when it has finished. Its result is on the run page, listed under [Runs](https://oathra.app/forge).