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#Pick The Path That Fits.

Three common starting points. Click a card to jump straight to what you need. New here? The fastest path for any persona is to import a preconfigured layout from Discord — see Shared Layouts.

#Quick Start (6 Steps).

Add the script, pick your instrument, apply a preset, verify behavior — the full six-step setup now lives on its own page.

Open the TradingView Setup guide →

#Skip Configuration. Just Run A Layout.

You do not have to figure out the "best" settings yourself. Our team and the community publish complete TradingView layouts — preconfigured charts with the indicators, strategies, inputs, sessions, and timeframes already dialed in. Import a layout, save it as your own, and you're ready in under two minutes. This is the fastest path from zero to running.

Where to find layouts in Discord

How to import a shared layout

Layouts are shared as TradingView links. The flow takes under two minutes:

1. Open the layout link. In Discord, click the layout URL in the post. TradingView opens in your browser with the chart and all its settings already loaded — but at this point you're viewing the author's layout, not editing it.
2. Save it to your account. In the top-right of TradingView, click the cloud icon (Save Layout) → pick "Save As..." → give it a name you'll recognize (e.g. Paradox Apex Eval — my copy). The layout is now in your personal Chart Layouts list under your account.
3. Confirm the indicators / strategy are on the chart. Look at the bottom panel — you should see the Strategy Tester populated and any indicators visible. If they're missing, your account doesn't yet have access to those scripts (check your Pro tier and TradingView username in your account portal).
4. Inspect the inputs before going live. Click the gear icon next to each indicator/strategy → review the input panel. The layout author has already set everything — but it's still your responsibility to know what you're running. Spend two minutes reading the inputs.
5. Set up your alert. If the layout is for automated execution, create the webhook alert (Condition: alert() function calls only; CrossTrade can use Order fills only; Aurum uses Order fills and alert() function calls) as described in Webhook Setup. Layouts do not include alerts — alerts are per-user.
6. Run the 3-Gate ladder. Even with a community-validated layout, follow the Three-Gate ladder. Don't skip Paper just because someone else's backtest looks good.

Why layouts beat manual configuration

• Zero setup time. No hunting through input panels, no copy-pasting numbers from a recipe.
• Reproducibility. Backtests published with a layout are reproducible by anyone who imports it — you know you're running the exact configuration that was tested.
• Updates flow automatically. When the official team ships a new strategy version, an updated layout is posted alongside. You re-import once and you're current.
• Community knowledge. Member-shared layouts often reveal use cases the official team hasn't published (specific eval firms, exotic instruments, unique session windows).
• Safer for new users. Reduces the risk of misconfiguring an input you didn't realize mattered.

#Starter Configs.

Concrete starter configurations — prop-firm eval, MNQ day trading, and the Kairos scalper — moved to a dedicated page.

Open the Prop-Firm Setup recipes →

#What Is Paradox Algo?

Paradox Algo is a quantitative trading ecosystem for TradingView. Four automated strategies, six manual indicators, and an AI strategy optimizer — all built on advanced statistical models and institutional finance principles. Designed to work across crypto, forex, stocks, and futures markets, our models analyze the context of a move (volatility regimesVolatility regime: the market's current personality — quiet, normal, or wild. The algo measures it in real time and adapts its risk to match., the strength behind it, and the levels where price has reacted before) instead of relying on simple crossover signals.

#What's Included.

Yearly Pro is the same Pro tier, billed once a year; yearly members are moving to Lifetime at no cost. Lifetime Access (October 2026 only) covers all 4 algos, 6 indicators and Stratera for TradingView for a one-time $270, with no renewals.

#Six Quant Tools.

The indicator suite is purpose-built for discretionary traders who read the market themselves. Each indicator surfaces a different dimension of price action — trend, momentum, regime, structure, edge — so you can layer them into an approach that fits your style. No prescribed strategy: you decide which combination of signals warrants an entry, your own stop placement, and your own targets.

#The Four Engines.

Four strategies, four different jobs. Each is a fully automated TradingView strategy with its own input panel, prop-firm framework, and webhook payload builder. Pick by use case:

#Optimize Any Strategy Autonomously.

Stratera is our macOS desktop app. Load any TradingView strategy, set your target metrics (SharpeSharpe ratio: reward per unit of risk. Higher is better. Anything above 1 is solid; above 2 is rare in trading., profit factor, net profit, max drawdown, win rate), click Optimize. Stratera autonomously runs thousands of adaptive backtests in the background — experimenting with input configurations until it finds the combo that maximizes your target.

What Stratera does

• Works with any TradingView Pine strategy you have access to — Paradox products or your own
• Detects the loaded strategy and pulls its inputs — every tunable parameter can be optimized
• Adaptive search: the engine learns from each iteration instead of brute-forcing every combination — full runs typically complete in minutes, not days
• Seven scoring targets: net profit, profit factor, win rate, Sharpe ratio, Sortino ratio, a minimum trade count — and a max drawdown ceiling
• Outputs a ranked results dashboard and applies the winning configuration back to your TradingView strategy
• Runs 100% locally — your strategies and results never leave your Mac
• Claude integration: connect Stratera to the Claude desktop app from Stratera's Settings and drive an optimization by chat — targets, scoring objective, per-parameter locks and search bounds, trial budget, testing-period windows, and more

Download & install

1. Visit paradoxalgo.com/stratera and scroll to the download section.
2. Enter the email address tied to your Pro subscription (the one you used at checkout). Our system verifies your active subscription and the download starts automatically (~70MB DMG).
3. Open the .dmg and drag Stratera into Applications, then eject the DMG.
4. Double-click Stratera in Applications. On first launch macOS may show a developer-verification prompt — click Open (first launch only; if it won't open, right-click the app → Open → confirm).

• OS: macOS 12 (Monterey) or newer — Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) and Intel both supported. macOS only; no Windows or Linux version.
• Subscription: active Pro membership — verified by email at download time. Core members: Stratera is a Pro-tier tool.
• TradingView: the TradingView Desktop app for macOS (free download from tradingview.com) plus a TradingView account — free or paid both work for backtesting. Stratera drives the desktop app directly; a TradingView browser tab won't connect.

Connect to TradingView

• Stratera works with the TradingView Desktop app — not a browser tab. Open it, log in, and load the strategy you want to optimize on a chart.
• Launch Stratera — it looks for the chart on its own. The connection dot in Stratera's top-right corner turns green when it's ready.
• If TradingView was already open in a mode Stratera can't talk to, Stratera asks "Restart TradingView to connect?" — click Restart & Connect. TradingView saves your layout automatically and reopens ready for Stratera.
• Not connecting? Click the connection dot, or launch TradingView from Stratera's toolbar so it opens in the right mode from the start.

Your first optimization run — step by step

1. In TradingView, open a chart with the strategy you want to optimize loaded on it.
2. Switch to Stratera — it detects the strategy and pulls its inputs.
3. Set your targets: net profit, profit factor, win rate, Sharpe ratio, Sortino ratio, minimum total trades — and a max drawdown ceiling.
4. Set bounds for each input you want optimized (e.g. Target Multiplier 2–5). Anything you don't bound, Stratera holds fixed — that's how you lock inputs you've already settled.
5. Click Optimize. Stratera runs adaptive backtests in the background — you can keep using your Mac while it works. Runs typically complete in minutes; tighter bounds converge faster.
6. Review the ranked results dashboard, pick the winner, and apply it — your TradingView strategy's input panel updates with the new configuration.
7. Before going live: validate out-of-sample (next callout) and paper-trade the configuration for at least a week.

Stratera troubleshooting

What Stratera doesn't do

• It doesn't trade. Stratera is a research and optimization tool, not a trading bot — it never places orders.
• It doesn't touch the cloud. Local Mac app only; your strategies, settings, and results stay on your machine.
• It doesn't run on Windows or Linux. macOS only.
• It doesn't manage your account or capital. You review, you decide, you apply.

Learn more about Stratera →

#What's New in v7.5.

Five providers, with Shifu as the new default

• Shifu is built in. Our official partner joins the Webhook Provider dropdown as the default. One alert carries the entry, target, stop and trailing stop; on NinjaTrader and Tradovate accounts they rest at the broker. Leave Auth Token and Account ID empty: the bot's link is your identity. Rithmic accounts: use PickMyTrade. Use one Shifu bot per chart for now. Shifu setup →
• On PickMyTrade, CrossTrade or TradersPost? Pick it again in the dropdown after you update. Nothing else about your setup changes.

CrossTrade: exits on the fill

• New recommended alert: Condition Order fills only with {{strategy.order.alert_message}} in the Message box. Chart exits then reach CrossTrade the moment they happen. The older setup (alert() function calls only, Message empty) still works, with exits sent at bar close.
• New row: CrossTrade — Tradovate Trail (Tradovate destination only). Chart (Mirror), the default, works as before. CrossTrade ATM sends the trail's trigger and distance with the entry, and CrossTrade's servers move the trailing stop. Run one sim trade first.
• Tradovate through CrossTrade is generally available, no longer beta. NinjaTrader trailing stays an ATM template.

PickMyTrade and TradersPost

• New row: PMT — Broker Platform (the last PickMyTrade row): Auto (the default, works as before), Tradovate, Rithmic or Interactive Brokers. IB has no trailing stop at PickMyTrade, so set PMT — Trail Enable to 0 for an IB account.
• TradersPost exit fix: exits now cancel the resting target and stop and close the whole position.
• TradersPost's old order-fills method. An alert made before September 23, 2026 can leave a position open with no target or stop at the broker. An alert re-created since then sends those exits again. Either way, use the built-in TradersPost provider. How to switch →

Also new

• Two Horizon settings. The β and γ Horizons, fixed before, can now be set. The defaults keep the old values.

Which provider do I pick?

One setup per alert: Condition = alert() function calls only (older guides call it “Any alert() function call”) → Message box empty → paste your provider's webhook URL in the Notifications tab. CrossTrade's recommended setup uses Order fills only with {{strategy.order.alert_message}} instead. Never pick Order fills and alert() function calls: it sends every order twice. Change any setting later? Delete and re-create the alert. Full setup walkthrough →

Previous release — v7.4 (broker-connectivity update)

• CrossTrade became built in (NinjaTrader 8). A fixed bracket at the chart's prices, or your own NinjaTrader ATM template running the trail. Mirror Chart Exits keeps the broker in step with chart exits, strategy tagging keeps each algo's trades apart, and one alert can fire several accounts.
• Rithmic accounts on PickMyTrade: the Rithmic connection name field. Full bracket and multi-account both carry natively. PickMyTrade sends the trailing stop to Rithmic accounts too. PickMyTrade's own trailing documentation covers Tradovate, so run one Rithmic sim trade before relying on it.
• TradersPost, verified end to end: its stop trails from entry at your full stop distance, a simpler trail than the chart's, so live trail exits won't mirror the backtest tick for tick. That's expected.
• Settings you can read: the webhook panel became five clear sections with plain-English tooltips, and the Setup-Health overnight-window warning started covering all three session windows.

Previous release — v7.3 (flexibility & safety update)

• TradersPost became built in. Native Webhook Provider — the strategy builds the complete bracketed order (market entry + take-profit + stop; stop-limit and trailing supported). URL-authenticated, so Auth Token / Account ID grey out.
• PickMyTrade multi-account. Comma-separated Account IDs — a single alert fires all of them (e.g. an eval and a funded account together).
• QuantLynk retired. If you were on it, flatten any open QuantLynk-managed position and migrate to TradersPost or PickMyTrade, then select your provider again after you update.
• Up to three trading windows. Main hours plus an overnight or Asia block — each closed out flat at its own window end. Windows 2 and 3 are opt-in and off by default, sharing one timezone and weekday filter.
• Trailing-stop master switch. One toggle for the trail: on (default) for the usual behavior, off for a clean take-profit / stop bracket when you want live fills to track the backtest as tightly as possible.

Setup-Health — the dashboard warns you before a mistake costs money

The on-chart Setup-Health readout (introduced in v7.3, extended in v7.4) flags the configuration mistakes that quietly cost money:

• Wrong chart timeframe for the algo
• Contract size that looks heavy for your drawdown room
• A 24-hour / overnight window on any enabled session (v7.4 — previously main Active Hours only)
• A preset silently overriding your edited inputs — the #1 "why won't my settings apply" question, now answered on-screen
• Missing webhook credentials for your selected provider

Risk controls (since v7.3)

• The loss-streak breaker counts only real losses. The consecutive-loss circuit breaker and its cooldown count only bracket losses — actual target, stop, or trailing exits. Forced time/session exits don't trip them.
• Risk-counter hardening. The pacing and loss counters can no longer stall new entries in unusual configurations (24/7 sessions, a midnight reset hour, or the multi-day guard).
• Carried over from v7.2: the loss breaker still resets each session (it can't lock you out across days), and the Daily Loss Cap still tracks live floating P&L, so it can trip before a position closes — matching how prop firms evaluate accounts.

Default settings (unchanged since v7.2 · optimized for MNQ 3-minute)

v7.3, v7.4 and v7.5 change none of these defaults (v7.5's one changed default is the Webhook Provider, now Shifu) — these are unchanged from v7.2 and apply to new chart loads only; existing users keep their saved settings. The Setup Recipes still recommend their own values where a specific goal calls for it (e.g. prop-firm caps with a safety buffer).

Setup & clarity

• Tooltips rewritten and expanded, including honest setup guidance for third-party webhook routes.
• One alert setup for the built-in providers (Shifu, PickMyTrade, TradersPost, CrossTrade, Custom Template): set the TradingView alert Condition to alert() function calls only, leave the Message box empty, and paste your provider's webhook URL in the Notifications tab — the strategy supplies the full payload. (CrossTrade's recommended setup uses Order fills only instead.) PickMyTrade, CrossTrade, and Custom Template need their credential fields filled first; Shifu and TradersPost are URL-authenticated, so those fields grey out. Full walkthrough →
• Reminder: a blank credential field is the most common cause of alerts never reaching your broker. Enter credentials in the strategy inputs first, every time.

Carried over from v7.2 and earlier: zero-repaint confirmed-bar execution, time-based and session-end force-flats, the adaptive volatility trailing stop, the floating-P&L prop-firm engine, single-alert bracket delivery, persistent exit + cancel-all on reconnect, the MNQ-3-minute default set, and the grouped input panel.

#Kairos Scalper v1.6.

• Shifu joins the provider list (five providers now). One alert carries the entry, target, stop and trailing stop; on NinjaTrader and Tradovate accounts they rest at the broker. Rithmic accounts stay on PickMyTrade. Two charts can feed one Shifu bot. Shifu setup →
• CrossTrade: exits on the fill. With the alert on Order fills only and {{strategy.order.alert_message}} in the Message box, chart exits reach CrossTrade the moment they happen. The older setup still works, with exits sent at bar close.
• TradersPost exit fix: exits now cancel the resting target and stop and close the whole position.
• Two new rows: PMT — Broker Platform (Auto / Tradovate / Rithmic / Interactive Brokers; IB gets a fixed stop, since PickMyTrade has no trailing stop there) and CrossTrade — Tradovate Trail (Chart (Mirror) / CrossTrade ATM).
• Dashboard: the Webhook row now also warns about a delayed data feed, a blank PickMyTrade connection name, and a Broker Symbol left on its MES1! default on another market's chart.
• “PMT — Trail Enable” stays lit under Shifu, PickMyTrade and TradersPost: it is the broker-trail switch for all three. On Shifu, keep it at 1, or no trailing stop is sent.

Previous release — v1.5 (broker-connectivity update)

• CrossTrade became built in (NinjaTrader 8). Fixed bracket mode (target + stop held at NinjaTrader at the chart's exact prices) or ATM mode (your saved NinjaTrader ATM template runs stop, target, and a tick-level auto-trail broker-side), plus Mirror Chart Exits, automatic strategy tagging, multi-account via comma-separated NT names, and a Tradovate destination through CrossTrade's cloud. ATM tip: Kairos's bracket adapts to the market, so for an exact template match, turn on Use Manual Brackets and copy those fixed values into your ATM. Your Contracts setting must match the template's contract count.
• Rithmic accounts on PickMyTrade. Type your Rithmic connection name into the field — exactly as it appears in your PMT dashboard. Full bracket and multi-account carry natively. PickMyTrade sends the trailing stop to Rithmic accounts too. PickMyTrade's own trailing documentation covers Tradovate, so run one Rithmic sim trade before relying on it. Tradovate users: leave it blank.
• PickMyTrade multi-account. Comma-separated account IDs trade from a single alert.
• Custom Template “Flatten Word.” Set the exact close keyword your provider expects (default unchanged).
• Settings you can actually read. The webhook panel became five clear sections with provider-aware field greying and plain-English tooltips, and the dashboard gained a Webhook row showing your active route.

Carried over from v1.3 / v1.4

• Ships pre-tuned. Profile defaults to Custom with its shipped configuration active out of the box — no setup needed beyond the broker connection. Conservative / Balanced / Aggressive remain as opt-in presets.
• Profile lock, made visible. The dashboard shows "preset locked" vs "CUSTOM" — custom input values only take effect on the Custom profile (or with Advanced Tuning enabled).
• Direction-aware entries. Waits for pullbacks instead of chasing extended price.
• Smarter confluence scoring. Scoring requires agreement across independent signal dimensions — the Confluence Gate is a true selectivity control.
• Wick Sensitivity (Advanced Engine): filters noisy wick signals.
• Session settings rebuilt — the old session string is gone (see below).
• PickMyTrade entries are explicit market orders (order_type: MKT) — no action needed on your side; this eliminates limit-order ambiguity at entry.
• Loss Circuit Breaker, clarified: when it trips, it halts new entries for the remainder of the day and resets at the next session (or on a win).

The input panel at a glance

Open the strategy's settings (gear icon on the chart) and you'll move through these groups top to bottom — everything in this section lives in one of them:

• Profile — the preset selector. Ships on Custom with the shipped configuration already active; switch to Conservative / Balanced / Aggressive only if you deliberately want a preset driving instead.
• Session — Active Hours, Session Timezone, and the Weekday Filter with its Mon–Sun checkboxes (detailed below).
• Risk controls — Daily Trade Limit, Daily Risk Limit, Daily Profit Target, Loss Circuit Breaker, Recovery Period and Max Hold. The daily limits stop new entries but never close an open trade, and they reset at the day boundary of your Session Timezone. Kairos has no trailing-drawdown or reset-hour setting; any open position closes at the end of Active Hours.
• 🔗 Webhook — five sections: one Setup section everyone fills (the Webhook Provider dropdown: Shifu / PickMyTrade / TradersPost / CrossTrade / Custom Template, with PickMyTrade as the default), then one section each for PickMyTrade, TradersPost, CrossTrade and Custom Template. Fields grey out unless their provider is selected.
• Advanced Engine — power-user tuning, including the new Wick Sensitivity control: raise it to filter out noisier wick-driven signals, lower it to let more through. Inputs here (and any custom values) only take effect on the Custom profile or with Advanced Tuning enabled.

The on-chart dashboard is your live status readout. Alongside the session and P&L state, it always shows which configuration is actually driving: "preset locked" means a preset is in control and your manual inputs are ignored; "CUSTOM" means your own input values are live. If you ever change an input and nothing happens — check this readout first; you're almost certainly on a locked preset.

Providers — what changed and why

Kairos v1.6's Webhook Provider dropdown has five options: Shifu, PickMyTrade, TradersPost, CrossTrade and Custom Template — the same five as Paradox Algo v7.5. PickMyTrade stays the default. One setup per alert, never the combined option.

• CrossTrade — added in v1.5. Earlier versions skipped it because its webhook couldn't carry a per-trade trail; ATM mode solves that by letting your saved NinjaTrader template run the trail broker-side. Fixed-bracket mode is also available when you'd rather have exact chart prices with no trail. v1.6 added exits on the fill and the Tradovate Trail row.
• QuantLynk — removed. Its webhook can't carry stop / target / trailing data, and Kairos's exits live in broker-side brackets delivered at entry. Routed through QuantLynk, positions would sit unprotected at the broker and desync from the strategy. (QuantLynk is retired across the entire Paradox Algo lineup — migrate to a supported provider.)
• Generic (Universal) — removed. It was redundant with Custom Template.

Custom Template users: keep the {token} / {account} placeholders in the template itself and put your real credentials in the Auth Token and Account ID input fields — don't hardcode credentials into the template. The placeholder list now also includes {trail_enable}, {trail_offset}, and {trail_act}, and {sl_type} can resolve to trailing_stop.

Session settings — fully rebuilt

The old session string (e.g. 0800-1200:23456) is gone, replaced by a proper UI in the Session group of the input panel. Top to bottom, here's exactly what you'll find and what each control does:

• Active Hours — a start-time and end-time pair defining your trading window (e.g. 08:30 → 11:30). The strategy only opens new positions inside this window; outside it, signals are ignored.
• Session Timezone — a dropdown with six options: New York, Chicago, London, Tokyo, Sydney, UTC. Your Active Hours are interpreted in this timezone — not your chart's timezone and not your computer's. Set it once to your market's home exchange and your window stays correct year-round, DST included.
• Enable Weekday Filter — a toggle. Switched ON, the Mon–Sun checkboxes below it become active and the strategy only trades on checked days. Switched OFF, every day of the week is eligible.
• Mon–Sun checkboxes — one per day. The typical futures setup checks Mon–Fri and leaves Sat/Sun unchecked.

• 24/7 markets (crypto): check Sat + Sun and turn the weekday filter OFF — or set Active Hours to 00:00–23:59.
• Daily counters follow your timezone. Daily P&L, the trade limit, and the circuit breaker all reset at the selected timezone's day boundary — not your chart's.

Alert setup is unchanged: Condition = your strategy + alert() function calls only, Message box empty, fires once per bar close. Backtest disclaimers also unchanged — use a fixed-month contract for reproducible backtests.

#Aurum v1.2.

What it does

• The approach. Gold trades around the clock, but it does not move the same way all day. Aurum measures a fixed part of the session to set the day's reference levels. When price makes a decisive move beyond a level later in the day, it takes the trade in that direction and holds — most positions leave on the clock, not at a target. Every decision is made on a closed bar and filled at the next bar's open, so the rule you see in the backtest is the rule the live system runs.
• Sizing by conditions. Larger size when the market's recent activity sits in the preferred band, smaller size everywhere else; size reduced when a new trade starts into a headwind, and again when a move is already crowded. Sizing can also cut a setup to zero contracts, and then no order is sent.
• Risk architecture. Protective stop and target placed on the chart and reported to your broker the instant they fill; the target waits until a trade has had time to develop; a pause after a drawdown, released by time, so the system always comes back; flat by the daily close, with an optional carry into the next session for a trade already well ahead; risk budget per trade or fixed contracts, with a hard cap on contracts.
• Prop-firm suite. Daily loss cap and daily profit cap with auto-flush, a session-anchored daily reset, and a hard daily flatten time. Compatible with Topstep, Apex, Tradeify, TFT and similar evaluation or funded accounts.
• Alerts & automation. Ready-made webhook messages for Shifu, PickMyTrade, TradersPost and CrossTrade (NinjaTrader 8 or Tradovate), plus a custom template. Fill-driven: every order carries its own message and goes out the moment it fills — entries at the next bar open, exits intrabar the instant the stop or target is hit. One alert covers everything.
• On the chart. A reference zone whose edges light up as price approaches them, a live trade envelope (entry, target, stop, with the open result shaded), size-graded entry tags, result-coloured exit dots, a diamond when a trade is carried overnight, and a status panel (position, window, conditions, protection, exit, pause, size and risk, session, setup check).

Setup in four steps

1. Add Aurum v1.2 [ParadoxAlgo] to an MGC1! or GC1! chart on the 15-minute timeframe. Defaults are ready to run.
2. Settings → Webhook: pick your platform (Shifu, PickMyTrade, TradersPost, CrossTrade, or a custom template), then enter your broker symbol, token and account. On Shifu, type the exact gold contract, like MGCZ6, and leave token and account empty. Every field explains itself in its tooltip.
3. Create ONE alert on the strategy. Condition: "Order fills and alert() function calls". Message: leave the pre-filled text. Webhook URL: your platform's.
4. Alerts are a frozen copy of your settings. After any settings change, delete the alert and create it again.

Nothing is ever sent twice. Every message rides on exactly one stream: the trades are fill messages, and the only script-sent message is the daily safety flatten, which fires only on days the chart is flat. A flatten to a flat account does nothing at the broker, so the ping is harmless by design. Members who prefer their own platform's format can replace the Message with that platform's template — same alert, same timing.

The input panel at a glance

Open the strategy's settings (gear icon on the chart). Every input has a plain-English tooltip; here is the map, top to bottom:

• ⚡ Advanced Engine — Direction (restricts which side may be taken), Level Clearance (how far beyond a reference level price must close before it counts), Volatility Lookback in minutes, the headwind and crowding tuning numbers, and the custom preferred band. Leave these at defaults unless you have validated a change on your own chart.
• 💼 Order Execution & Risk — a Sizing mode dropdown: By Conditions (default — more contracts on preferred days, fewer on the rest), Fixed Contracts, or Risk Budget $ (sizes every trade so the distance to its protective stop costs about that many dollars); the Preferred Conditions preset (Quiet days / Quiet and normal / All days / Custom); and Max Contracts, a hard ceiling for any single trade — set it to what your account and your prop firm actually allow. Then the exits: Profit Target (on/off, as a multiple of current volatility) with Target Waits (how many bars a trade must be old before the target becomes active); Protective Stop (on/off, as a multiple of volatility) with Stop Arms After (0 = protected from the first bar); Carry a Working Trade Overnight (on/off, how far ahead it must be) with Max Sessions to Carry.
• 🛡️ Risk Controls — Max Positions per Session and Max Trades per Session, Pause After Drawdown (pause new trades once the account has fallen this many dollars below its own best) with Pause Length in sessions, plus the Headwind Awareness and Crowding Awareness switches.
• 💼 Prop Firm Settings — Enable Prop Rails, Daily Loss Cap ($) and Daily Profit Cap ($). When a cap is reached everything is closed and no new trade opens until the next session. Set the loss cap to your firm's daily limit minus a 10–20% buffer; the day's result includes the open trade.
• 🔗 Webhook 1–5 — Webhook 1 · Setup (start here): Webhook Provider, Broker Symbol (the gold symbol exactly as your provider names it: Shifu wants the exact contract like MGCZ6, Rithmic usually wants the contract month like MGCZ2026, and CrossTrade wants the NinjaTrader name like MGC 12-26), Auth Token / API Key and Account ID (several PickMyTrade accounts can be comma-separated; Shifu and TradersPost need no token). Then one section per provider: 2 · PickMyTrade (Rithmic Connection Name, Broker Platform: Auto, Tradovate, Rithmic or Interactive Brokers), 3 · TradersPost (SL Order Type / Limit Offset; re-create the alert first, then turn Allow side swapping on and leave Subtract exit quantity from signal quantity off in your TradersPost strategy), 4 · CrossTrade (Destination: NinjaTrader 8 or Tradovate / ATM Template Name / Strategy Tag), 5 · Custom Template (Flatten Word / Template). Fields grey out unless their provider is selected. On Shifu, MGC1! or any form other than the exact contract stops the strategy with a message.
• 🕐 Session — the Reference Window (the part of the session the engine measures to set the day's reference levels; nothing trades until it has closed), the Trading Window (when new trades may open), the Hard Flatten time (the day's position closes at or before it, default 4:30 PM New York, unless a trade qualifies for the optional overnight carry, which is on by default; if your account must be flat every day, switch off Carry a Working Trade Overnight), and the Daily Safety Flatten Alert switch.
• 📅 Backtest Window and 🎨 Display — an optional testing window, and the chart layer (panel, watermark, reference zone, trade envelope, markers, session shading, in-trade bar colouring, colours). The chart layer is display only — nothing in it feeds an order.

What to expect

• Built for gold on the 15-minute chart. It is not tuned for other markets or timeframes.
• It earns when gold moves with direction over weeks and months, and sits close to break-even in long sideways stretches. Losing stretches are part of the system.
• Progress arrives in clusters. Most of it comes during the strongest moves, with long quiet periods in between. Flat days are normal — it trades at most one position per session, and only when a level is cleared.
• One net position at a time. A carried trade is exposed while the market is closed and can open away from where it closed.
• Backtests include slippage and commission but cannot model every live fill.

Questions members ask

• "Why did it enter one bar after the level was cleared?" By design. Decisions are made on a closed bar and filled at the next open; the backtest runs the same rule, so live entries follow the report's timing. Live fills can still differ from the backtest.
• "My broker shows no stop right after entry." Correct at default settings: the stop is placed on the chart after the trade has had time to develop and is reported the instant it fills. If you want a broker-held stop from bar one, set Stop Arms After = 0 — the stop then rides in the entry message on platforms that accept one.
• "It has been flat for days." Normal. One position per session at most, and only when a level is cleared.
• "The chart shows extra labels — Long +3, Target, Session flat." Those are TradingView's own trade markers, not ours: Chart settings → Strategy → untick Trades on chart to hide them.
• "I only get a message at the close and nothing else." Your alert condition is "alert() function calls only". Change it to "Order fills and alert() function calls" and recreate the alert.

#What To Expect Live.

A few things differ between the Strategy Tester and live execution — all of them normal. Knowing them up front prevents the usual "this is repainting / the script is broken" confusion.

• Fires on confirmed bar close. Signals are only emitted when a bar closes — never intra-bar. This is exactly what makes the strategy non-repaint: backtest and live both act on the same confirmed bar, so the report matches reality.
• Timestamps: bar-open label, bar-close fill. TradingView labels each trade by the bar's open time, but the fill happens at the bar close. A trade stamped 9:30 on a 3-min chart actually filled at that bar's close (~9:33). Your broker's fill log is the source of truth for the real fill time — not the TradingView label.
• Webhook latency is normal. Expect sub-second to a few seconds from bar close to broker fill, sometimes longer under heavy load. That's the nature of TradingView → bridge → broker, not a malfunction.
• Bar vs tick — they will differ. The backtest simulates the trailing stop on bar data; your broker runs it tick by tick. So live and backtest exits won't be identical — and the gap is largest with tight trails, which a single tick can trigger but a bar can't represent. Widen the trail if you want them to track closely.
• Set Bar detalization to High for a realistic backtest. In the strategy's Properties tab, set Bar detalization to High. It replays each past bar in about 60 price steps instead of 4, so the trail is modeled far more realistically. It replaced the old Bar Magnifier checkbox. Note: the High option requires TradingView Premium or higher.

#Tuning The Engines.

Each algo's input panel surfaces the specific options available for that engine, organized into clear groups (Confluence Engine, Order Execution & Risk, Risk Controls, Prop Firm Settings, Webhook, Session, Display). Most users run the shipped defaults as they are. The presets (Conservative / Balanced / Aggressive) are opt-in alternatives, and Custom unlocks every advanced input for power users.

Prop Firm Compliance

• Daily Loss Cap: hard ceiling on daily loss before new entries are blocked. Set it to your firm's daily loss rule (minus a safety buffer). The cap includes open (floating) P&L, so it can trip before a position closes — the moment your unrealized loss reaches the cap, not just on a realized loss.
• Loss Circuit Breaker: halts new entries after N consecutive losses, then resets each session — it can't lock you out permanently across days. v7.3: the breaker and its cooldown count only bracket losses (real target / stop / trailing exits) — forced time or session exits no longer trip them, so entry pacing around those can differ slightly from v7.2.
• Daily Profit Cap: optional ceiling that auto-flattens once your daily profit target is hit.
• Multi-Day Loss Guard (trailing drawdown): tracks high-water-mark equity over a rolling window and blocks entries if the peak-to-current drop breaches the cap. Enable it for any firm with a trailing drawdown rule (most of them).
• Daily Reset Hour: the hour (in NY time) your daily P&L counter resets to zero. Match it to your firm's reset window — most CME-aligned firms use 18 (6 PM ET, the futures session open). Topstep, Apex, and Tradeify can differ, so check your firm's rule sheet.
• How to match your firm: set Daily Loss Cap and Multi-Day Loss Cap to your firm's actual dollar limits minus a 15–20% buffer, set the Daily Reset Hour to their reset time, and set Force Close to their end-of-day rule. Then the strategy enforces the rules before the firm's bridge ever has to.
• Session-based Trade Limits: max trades per session and per day, with minimum spacing between entries.

Risk Brackets (Target / Stop / Trail)

• Target & Stop (adaptive, volatility-scaled): every trade ships with one profit target and one protective stop, both sized as a multiple of the strategy's live volatility unit. Raising the Target Multiplier pushes the target further out; raising the Risk Multiplier widens the stop. There are no partial scale-outs — the position exits in one piece.
• Stop-Loss (SL): hard ceiling on per-trade loss. Required input.
• Market entry: entries fire at market on the close of the confirmed signal bar — there is no limit price or entry offset to configure.
• Adaptive (recommended): TP, SL, and trail distances scale with live volatility. Risk stays proportional to conditions.
• Fixed: manual mode for deterministic stop sizes. Pick one format (% · Ticks · Points · Pips) and stay consistent across the Stop and the Target.
• Adaptive Position Exit (Trailing Stop): the adaptive trailing logic ratchets behind price using a volatility-derived buffer. Arms once the trade has run past your Trail Trigger. Recommended for trends. v7.3: a master trailing-stop toggle turns it on or off in one place — leave it on for the usual behavior, or switch it off for a clean take-profit / stop bracket (handy for mean-reverting setups, or to make live fills track the backtest as tightly as possible).

Manual Brackets & the Trail (read before you touch them)

• How Manual Brackets work (mix & match). When Manual Brackets is enabled, each manual field overrides the adaptive value only if it is greater than 0. Any field left at 0 keeps using the adaptive value. So you can set a fixed Manual SL and Manual TP while leaving the trail at 0 to stay adaptive — every component is independent.
• Tight trails exit you in seconds. A small trail distance on a fast instrument scalps you out almost instantly — a 1–10 tick trail on MNQ gets hit by normal noise within seconds of entry. Recommended starting range: 40–60 ticks on MNQ (scale up for ES / NQ). If trades keep closing the instant they open, the trail is too tight — widen it.
• Adaptive vs Manual — when to use each. Adaptive (the default) scales TP / SL / trail with live volatility, so risk stays proportional across regimes — best for most users, most of the time. Manual is for deterministic fixed bracket sizes — a prop firm requiring exact stops, or testing a specific fixed-tick configuration. Unsure? Stay Adaptive.

Trade Pacing & Cooldowns

• Cooldown Period: blocks new entries for N minutes after a position exits. Prevents revenge trading.
• Consecutive-Loss Circuit Breaker: auto-blocks new entries after N losses in a row. Forces a pause. Resets at the start of each session, so it can't lock you out permanently. v7.3: counts only bracket losses (target / stop / trail) — forced time/session exits don't trip it or its cooldown.
• Max Hold Time: auto-flattens any position open longer than your specified threshold. Useful for scalpers.
• Start with Max Trades = 1 until your discipline is proven and your results are consistent. Scale up only after that bar is met.

Session & Time Filtering

• Multiple sessions (v7.3): run up to three trading windows — your main hours plus, say, an overnight or Asia block. Windows 2 and 3 are opt-in and off by default, share one timezone and weekday filter, and each closes flat at its own window end. A single session behaves exactly as before.
• Time Zone: set UTC offset for your locale (e.g. UTC−5 for ET).
• Force Close: Don't Force · Day Close · Session Close · Custom Time. Required for funded-account end-of-day rules.
• Session Filter: NY · London · Tokyo · Sydney presets, plus custom HHMM-HHMM windows.
• Day-of-Week Filter: Mon–Fri toggles — disable holidays and low-liquidity days.

#A worked example.

• Example. Prop account max drawdown = $4,000. 10% × $4,000 = $400 a day in this example, shared across every trade that day.
• Position sizing math (NQ, the big E-mini). Stop = 20 ticks × $5/tick = $100 risk per contract, so $400 covers 4 contracts at that stop. A second trade the same day draws on the same $400.
• Position sizing math (MNQ, the micro). Stop = 20 ticks × $0.50/tick = $10 risk per contract, so $400 covers 40 contracts at that stop. Each MNQ is one tenth of NQ per tick, so size moves in smaller steps.
• What the indicators mark. SignalWave marks regime flips, EdgeFlow marks threshold crossings, and QuantumFlow marks order-block invalidation levels. Where you place a stop is your call.
• Stop distance trade-off. A tighter stop gets hit more often. A wider stop risks more per contract, so fewer contracts fit the same daily number.

Tick Value Cheat Sheet

Use this to size positions accurately on the most popular CME futures. Tick math is the #1 source of "I sized this wrong" mistakes in live trading. Bookmark this section.

MNQ vs NQ & symbol mapping

• Symbol mapping. The strategy's Broker Symbol input (e.g. MNQ1!) maps to the front-month contract on the broker side — for example MNQM6. MNQ1! is TradingView's continuous front-month alias; your broker fills the actual dated contract. Make sure the front month your broker resolves to is the one you intend to trade (watch for roll periods near expiration).
• Sizing math. Daily risk ÷ (stop in ticks × $/tick) = max contracts. Example, MNQ with a $400 daily cap and a 20-tick stop: 20 × $0.50 = $10/contract → $400 ÷ $10 = 40 MNQ max. The same stop on NQ: 20 × $5 = $100/contract → 4 NQ max. Size to your account, not to the chart.

Pre-Trade Checklist

• Does this trade fit within my daily risk cap?
• Will my stop-loss maintain acceptable per-trade risk?
• Am I using structural or tactical indicator context for stop placement?
• Have I tracked cumulative risk across the day?
• Is my prop-firm trailing drawdown still safe after this trade?

If any answer is "No" — do not trade.

#Webhook Setup.

Provider choice, alert configuration, and end-to-end verification for Shifu, PickMyTrade, TradersPost and CrossTrade.

Open the Webhook Automation guide →

#The Three-Gate Promotion Ladder.

Do not skip gates. Every gate exists because someone before you blew up by skipping it. Each step's pass criteria is concrete and measurable — there's nothing to interpret.

#Troubleshooting.

Alerts, webhooks, fills, prop-firm rules — the common failure points and their fixes.

Open Troubleshooting →

#Ten Rules To Live By.

1. Start on the shipped defaults; the presets (Conservative / Balanced / Aggressive) are opt-in alternatives. Adjust incrementally only after you've run at least 30 sessions on the baseline.
2. Use adaptive (volatility-scaled) brackets over fixed-tick brackets unless your prop firm specifically requires fixed sizes.
3. Set your Active Hours filter to a high-liquidity 3-6 hour window — low-liquidity overnight and holiday sessions carry wider spreads and thinner books — most day traders stand aside.
4. Set Daily Loss Cap to your firm's actual rule minus a 15-20% safety buffer. Never push the firm's rule to the wire.
5. Enable Multi-Day Loss Guard for any prop firm with a trailing drawdown (Apex, Topstep — most do).
6. Verify the Daily Reset Hour matches your firm's reset window. Most CME-aligned firms use 18 (6pm NY).
7. Begin with Max Trades / Day = 1-2 — a deliberately conservative starting cap. Raise it only against your own written plan, not on the back of a good week.
8. Trust the Recovery Period and Loss Circuit Breaker — when they halt you, the regime is bad. Re-entering immediately is how accounts die.
9. Never override a signal manually mid-session. If you don't trust the strategy enough to leave it alone, you're not ready to be live.
10. Follow the Three-Gate Ladder — Backtest → Paper → Live (1-unit) → Live (full). Every blown account skipped a gate.

#First Trade.

What fires, in what order, and what to verify at each hop — signal, alert, webhook, fill, bracket.

Open the First Trade walkthrough →

#Payload Reference.

Field-by-field reference for the webhook JSON payload each provider receives.

Open the Payload Reference →

#Glossary & Acronyms.

Plain-English definitions for every recurring term in the ecosystem.

Open the Glossary →

#Support Channels.

#Trade At Your Own Risk.

Paradox Algo and affiliated parties are not registered financial advisors. The tools provided are for educational purposes only and do not constitute financial advice. You must understand the risks involved and accept any level of loss. Past performance does not guarantee future results. You assume full responsibility for all trading outcomes.