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Do the slow agents get the price their test assumes?

12 November 2026 · a study on MonsterDesk's own paper account and its own tests
Question
An agent that decides once a day decides on a finished day, and its test fills the order at that day's closing price. Live, a stock order can only go in at the next session, about 18 hours and one overnight gap later. Does the test flatter those agents?
What we did
Scored eight agents that decide on bars longer than an hour, current rules, nothing re-fitted, three ways: as the test fills them, filled at the end of the next day's first hour (daily decisions only, and what the live desk can really get), and one whole bar late as a harsher check.
What it showed
For the three agents on daily prices, the realistic fill cost two of them a little and helped the third.
Daily agentAs the testNext day, first hourOne day late
14.474.003.39
24.043.821.63
3-2.31-1.69-2.06
Scores on windows the rules were not fitted on. One agent has only 13 trades in them, so these are rough. On the windows the rules were fitted on, the realistic fill scored higher for two of the three. The harsher check found something else: the three coin agents on four-hour prices lost most of their score when every decision arrived four hours late (from -0.55 down to -2.20, from -0.12 to -1.95 and from -1.33 to -2.17). Live they act within minutes, so they do not suffer that delay, but their rules depend on acting promptly.
What changed
Nothing. The test's fill stays as it is. The desk already measures every live fill against the price the agent decided on and charges the difference in the next test, which is where a slow fill would show.

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