The search tool

Aphna Search works in TradingView in the Chrome browser only. It can't be added to the TradingView desktop app. If you normally use the app, open the same chart layout in Chrome when you want to search; your layouts are saved to your TradingView account, so they're the same in both.

The search tool does the repetitive part of building for you. Instead of changing a setting, reading the figures and noting them down forty times, it does that and hands you a table. It's optional: every strategy can be built by hand.

Installing it

1. Download Aphna Search from the Downloads section of your Aphna dashboard.
2. Unzip it somewhere permanent. If you delete the folder later, the tool stops working.
3. In Chrome, go to chrome://extensions, turn on Developer mode (top right), click Load unpacked and choose the aphna-search folder.
4. Refresh your TradingView page (press F5). The tool only appears after a refresh.
5. The APHNA button appears at the top of the chart.

To update it: remove the old version at chrome://extensions, load the new folder the same way, and refresh TradingView.

One Aphna Builder per chart

The search only works when exactly one Aphna Builder is on the chart. With two, it tells you and does nothing, because it can't know which strategy you mean.

The results are IS figures

Every figure in the results table is an IS figure: the same lines you build on in the Data Window. Compare them with the "needed: IS" targets in the Data Window, not with the full-year criteria. The IS period is shorter than a year, so its trade count and profit will always be lower than the full-year numbers.

The "min IS trades" box fills itself with the builder's own IS target when you open the panel.

What it can search

MA 1, MA 2, Trend Strength Min, Trend Strength Max, Stop Loss, Take Profit, Signal Filter and Cool-down.

Running a search

1. Search type. Sequential walks through the range in order. Random scatters across it, which is better for wide ranges.
2. Input to search. Pick one. Add a second only when you need to see two together; the number of combinations multiplies quickly.
3. From, To, Step. The range to test.
4. Keep only results with. Hides results below a trade count, above a drawdown or below a profit.
5. Run. Each setting takes a couple of seconds while TradingView recalculates.

When it finishes, or you press Stop, your starting settings are put back. Your starting strategy is the shaded top row, so you can see whether anything beat it. Click any row to load those settings onto the chart. Click a column heading to sort by it.

Protect your settings: read this before a long search

While a search is running, the builder's settings change constantly. If the browser, the tab or your computer shuts down mid-search, the builder is left on whatever setting it was trying, and TradingView may save that.

Aphna Search protects you against this. Before every search it saves your starting settings. If a search is interrupted:

• the APHNA button turns amber and reads APHNA - RESTORE;
• open the panel and click Put my settings back.

Only the settings the search can change are saved. As an extra safety net before a long search, take a screenshot of your settings.

Timeframes

Which chart timeframe suits your strategy? The Timeframes search answers that in one run.

1. Set Search type to Timeframes. Nothing else to fill in.
2. Run. The tool switches the chart through 15m, 20m, 25m, 30m, 35m, 40m, 45m, 50m, 55m and 1h in turn, with your settings unchanged, and records the IS results on each.
3. When it finishes, the chart goes back to the timeframe you started on.

Reading the table:

Compare IS /7 first, then drawdown and profit. Totals aren't directly comparable, because each timeframe covers a different number of months; the /7 score already allows for that. Click a row to switch the chart to that timeframe, and build from there.

Some timeframes, such as 35m or 55m, are custom intervals in TradingView. They work on Premium.

Two things to remember

1. It changes Aphna Builder only. Aphna Live and your alerts are never touched.
2. It's a shortcut, not an answer. The best row out of 200 is often the best row by luck. Treat a result as a starting point, check it, and carry on with the method in guide 3.