Create a strategy and choose its instruments

Before you start

You need to be signed in. You do not need any existing strategies — this creates your first one.

Steps

1. Open Single in the sidebar and select New strategy.
2. Answer "How do you want to build this strategy?" by choosing one of the four strategy types: Single instrument, Multiple instruments, Screener, or Full setup. Each shapes which stepper steps you see next — see Choosing a strategy type for what each one is for. To configure every setting at once instead, pick Full setup and switch to Full edit once the strategy is open.
3. Work through the guided stepper, in this order: General ("Set up your strategy"), Asset selection ("Pick assets"), Risk ("Set risk conditions"), Allocation ("Distribute capital"), Exit rules ("Define exit rules"), then Review ("Review & launch"). Your strategy type decides which of these steps appear — Single instrument is the leanest (just Asset selection and Review), while Full setup shows all six. See Choosing a strategy type for the per-type breakdown.
4. In Asset selection, add the instrument(s) — or, for the Screener type, the screener — the strategy will trade.
5. Fill in whichever other steps your strategy type shows: a name and rebalance frequency in General, risk conditions in the "Set risk conditions" step, weights in Allocation, take-profit/stop-loss conditions in Exit rules. A risk condition switches the strategy between two allocation profiles — Risk-On and Risk-Off — and never pauses, stops or liquidates it, unless the Risk-Off profile you set is itself cash.
6. On Review & launch, check the recap and the "Strategy alerts" panel, then select Save & Run.

What you should see

The strategy appears in your Single library and a backtest starts running on it. On Review & launch, the "Strategy alerts" panel lists errors — which block the launch until fixed — and warnings, which don't. To understand how the pieces you just configured fit together, read What is a strategy?. Once the strategy exists, see Editing a strategy for how to change its instruments, allocation, or exit rules later, and CAGR for one of the metrics your first backtest will report.

Common problems

Why can't I continue past a step?

Each strategy type enforces its own instrument or screener count before you can move on, and you'll see one of these messages if a step is missing what it needs:

• "Pick exactly 1 instrument." — the Single instrument type requires exactly one instrument.
• "Pick 2 or more instruments." — the Multiple instruments type requires at least two.
• "Add at least 1 screener." — the Screener strategy type requires at least one screener.

Add the missing instrument or screener in Asset selection, then continue.