The LSE Directory / Trading software
Backtrader is a free, open-source Python framework for backtesting and live-trading algorithmic strategies. It is distributed as the `backtrader` package on PyPI and as source on GitHub under the GPL-3.0-or-later license, and it runs strategy code against historical or live market data through the same event-driven engine, so a strategy written for a backtest can be pointed at a live broker feed with minimal changes. Core functionality includes 122 built-in technical indicators, support for multiple simultaneous data feeds and timeframes, an integrated broker simulator with order types such as brackets, OCO orders and trailing stops, matplotlib-based plotting, and parameter optimization tools. Backtrader targets individual quant developers and retail algorithmic traders who want to prototype and test strategies in pure Python without building data-feed, order-management and analytics infrastructure from scratch. Its differentiator against notebook-first or vectorized backtesting libraries is the event-driven, broker-simulation architecture: strategies are written as classes that react to bar-by-bar events, and the same code path handles simulated and live order execution, with live broker integrations for Interactive Brokers, Oanda and Visual Chart. This makes it comparable in purpose to libraries such as Zipline or vectorbt, but oriented toward users who want realistic order and commission simulation rather than pure vectorized speed. The project was created by Daniel Rodriguez (GitHub handle Mementum), who according to his LinkedIn profile is based in Madrid, Spain, and first published the code in 2015. As of this research the GitHub repository (mementum/backtrader) has accumulated roughly 22,400 stars and 2,400-plus commits across 139 tagged releases, making it one of the most widely starred Python backtesting libraries. It is not a funded company; there is no public record of venture funding, and it has no publicly disclosed revenue, AUM or regulatory status, consistent with it being a solo-maintained open-source project rather than a commercial vendor. Development has slowed markedly in recent years: the most recent PyPI release, version 1.9.78.123, dates to April 19, 2023, and the project's own community forum is currently shown as disabled on backtrader.com. Despite this, the codebase remains stable and widely used for local prototyping, and third-party tutorials, courses and blog posts referencing backtrader continued to be published into 2026, indicating the existing user base has kept using the last stable release rather than the project gaining active new development.
