Aphna Builder: every setting explained

Aphna Builder is where you build a strategy and find out whether it is worth trading. It runs on a TradingView chart and tests your settings against the last twelve months of that chart's history, then judges the result against fixed standards.

It does not predict anything. It shows you how a set of rules would have behaved.

Before you start

• TradingView Premium. Lower plans load much less history, so the test covers far fewer months.
• Chart timeframe: 15 minutes to 1 hour. Aphna is built for 15m, 30m and 1h charts. Don't go lower or higher.
• Tick the disclaimer first. Every setting stays locked until you do.
• Minimise TradingView's Strategy Tester panel at the bottom of the screen. Everything you need is in the Data Window (see guide 2).
• Choose your chart's data provider carefully. The same symbol is priced slightly differently by each provider. Where TradingView offers your own broker's prices, build on those. Otherwise use a major provider (FXCM, FOREX.com, IC Markets). Aphna places each trade's stop and target at the same distances your strategy uses, measured from your broker's own price, so a small difference between providers doesn't break a trade.

One chart, several strategies

You can put Aphna Builder on a chart more than once, one per strategy, for example a long and a short on gold. Two things to know:

• The Data Window shows the figures for every Aphna Builder on the chart, one after the other. Name each strategy clearly (next section) so you know which figures are which.
• The search tool only works with one Aphna Builder on the chart. If you want to use it, keep that strategy on a chart of its own.

Your settings belong to the chart

The numbers you type into Aphna Builder are saved with that chart. Add Aphna Builder to a new chart and it starts with the default settings. Save each strategy's chart layout so you never lose them.

Strategy name

Name this strategy: free text, shown next to the name on the chart. Include the symbol, timeframe, direction and the chart's data provider, for example GOLD 15m LONG FOREXCOM. The provider matters: the same symbol from two providers gives different results, and it lets you match the strategy to its live trades later. Use exactly the same name in Aphna Live.

Account & risk

Direction: longs, shorts, or both.

Risk % per trade: how much of the account each trade risks. A wider stop means a smaller position, so the money at risk stays the same. It never compounds: every trade risks the same share of the starting balance, so a growing account can't flatter the results.

Timezone: the clock used for sessions and days. Leave it as it is.

Show TP/SL boxes: draws each trade's stop and target on the chart. Keep it on. It lets you see every trade the strategy takes, and compare the builder's trades with your live trades to make sure they match.

Entry & exit

MA 1 / MA 2: the two moving averages the strategy is built around, in candles. Smaller numbers react faster and trade more often; larger numbers trade less and hold longer.

Trend Strength Min / Max: signals are only taken when the trend's strength is inside this range. The Data Window shows Suggested Trend Strength Min and Max for the chart you're on. Start on those and leave them there until the late stages of building (guide 3).

Stop Loss: how far the stop sits from the entry. Wider means fewer trades stopped out by noise, but each loss takes longer to win back.

Take Profit [R]: the target, as a multiple of the stop distance. 1 means the target is the same distance as the stop. Keep it at 1 or above.

Entry Candle: what the candle must look like to confirm a signal:

• Any candle: no extra confirmation.
• Wick rejection: the candle must reject the level with a wick.
• Engulfing: the candle must engulf the one before it.
• Wick rejection or engulfing: either will do.

Stricter choices mean fewer trades and usually a higher win rate.

MA Touch: which moving average price has to touch for a signal: either, MA 1 or MA 2.

Close on opposite signal: when a signal in the other direction appears, the open trade is closed. Off means trades only end at their stop or target.

Filters

Every filter removes trades. When you try one, watch the trade count as well as the other figures. A filter that improves the results but takes you below the minimum number of trades hasn't helped.

Signal Filter [%]: skips this share of the weakest signals. 0 is off.

Structure Filter and Structure sensitivity: only trades in the direction the market's own structure is moving. Lower sensitivity reacts to smaller swings.

Timeframe Filter, timeframe and sensitivity: the same idea, read from another timeframe: 5 minutes, 15, 30, 1 hour or 4 hours.

Cool-down [h]: after a new trend begins, waits this many hours before taking signals. 0 is off.

Sessions: Sydney, Tokyo, London, NY: which parts of the day the strategy may trade. Every hour belongs to exactly one session:

Session days (the grid)

Each session has seven day boxes. Untick Tokyo's Wednesday and the strategy takes nothing during Tokyo hours on Wednesdays. Nothing else changes.

Grid readout chooses which session's days the Data Window shows. It changes what you're looking at, never what the strategy trades.

21:00 spread rule

On by default, and it must match Aphna Live. Spreads widen around the daily rollover, so:

• no new trades between 21:00 and 23:00 UK time;
• at 21:00 UK, any open trade close to its stop is closed.

This is what happens on a live account, so leave it on to see the truth. Untick it only to see how much the rule costs a strategy.

Walk forward

Show IS / OOS lines: marks where the building period ends and the unseen period begins. Keep it on. Guide 2 explains what IS and OOS are and how to use them.

Two things that catch people out

1. Changing Aphna Live after the alert is made. If you make changes to your Aphna Live, delete the alert and create it again, or your alert will keep trading the old settings.

2. Aphna Live not matching Aphna Builder exactly. Every setting in Aphna Live must be identical to the strategy you built: every number, every tick box, every session day. One difference, and your live trades won't match your test. Check each setting against the builder before you create the alert.