The block builder

The builder is a chart with your strategy laid out beside it. You add blocks, fill in their fields, and save. Blocks are grouped by what they do.

The order things happen in

The outline reads in the order the strategy runs:

1. Source. One market on one timeframe. A strategy can have several.
2. Detector. The block that spots a setup and proposes a trade. One per source.
3. Parts of the detector. Named pieces of that detector you can set on their own.
4. Entry gates. Conditions that must hold, or the entry is refused.
5. Score floors. Minimum scores. A setup that scores below yours is passed over.
6. Entry. How the order goes in: at market, on a limit, or as a stop order waiting at a level.
7. Exits. How the trade ends.
8. Trade protection. Rules that run while the trade is open.
9. Across the account. Sizing, daily halts, calendar, news, hedging.
10. Across the portfolio. Rules that coordinate several sources.

How editing works

Nothing is saved until you press Save. You can undo every change, and there is no autosave. A version is something you chose to make.

Saved versions are never edited. Saving again makes the next version, so a trade always points to the exact rules that took it.

You can save an unfinished strategy. The Still to fill in panel lists what is missing. It words each one as a decision, not an error, using the same plain names the fields show.

Sessions, days and blocked hours show as tick boxes and hour rows. If a value cannot be shown honestly as ticks, it opens as text instead.

The words on the blocks

Every setting shows a plain-English name first, with its short technical name underneath in small type. The technical name helps if you ever need to point to one setting exactly. Some pairs you will meet often:

• Widest stop allowed (ticks): maxStopTicks
• Smallest gap that counts (ticks): minFvgTicks
• Maximum dollar risk per trade (USD): riskUsd
• Target, as a multiple of the risk: rr
• Buy, sell or both: direction
• Quiet candles between signals: cooldownBars
• Extra room past the stop anchor (ticks): stopBufferTicks
• Break even after (ticks): beStopTicks
• Volatility lookback (ATR period): atrPeriod
• Trend-strength lookback (ADX period): adxPeriod
• Trend-strength floor (ranging at or below, ADX): adxLo
• Counts as trending at or above (ADX): adxHi
• Which setups trade in which market state: table
• When two setups fire at once: arbitration
• If they still tie: tieBreak
• Decision window (seconds): arbitrationBarSec
• Sessions I trade: allowedSessions
• Days I trade: allowedDays
• Hours I never trade (Central Time): blockedHoursCT

Dropdown options follow the same rule: plain words first, then the stored value in brackets, as in "The nearest broader state applies (fallback)".

A few units come up everywhere:

• A tick is the smallest price step of the instrument. The instrument picker shows what one is worth.
• R measures distance in multiples of the trade's own risk. A target at 2 R sits twice as far from the entry as the stop.

Running more than one setup

A strategy with several sources can add two blocks under the watched symbols:

• Market-state routing reads volatility (how much price is moving) and trend strength. It decides which of your setups may trade in the current market state. You edit it as a grid of three volatility rows and three trend columns, and tick your own setups into each box.
• When two setups fire at once (the One trade at a time block) decides which setup gets the account's single trade slot.

With a single source, both can stay empty.

The chart does not mark past setups

The builder doesn't mark past setups. Run a backtest to see them.

What's next

Detectors, and the parts inside them.