Quickstart: Your First Strategy in 5 Minutes

This guide walks you through building a simple RSI crossover strategy, backtesting it on historical data, and reviewing the results. By the end you will have a working strategy and a clear understanding of the core workflow.

Note

You need a Stratifyre account to follow along. If you have not signed up yet, head to stratifyre.com and create a free Explorer trial account.

Step 1: Create Your Account

1. Go to stratifyre.com and click Get Started.
2. Enter your email address and choose a password, or sign up with Google.
3. Confirm your email address by clicking the link in the verification email.
4. You will land on the Dashboard — your home base inside Stratifyre.

Step 2: Create a New Strategy

1. From the Dashboard, click the New Strategy button.
2. Give your strategy a name — something descriptive like “RSI Crossover - AAPL Daily”.
3. Under Instrument, search for and select EQ:NYSE:AAPL (Apple stock on the NYSE).
4. Set the Timeframe to 1 Day — this means each bar on the chart represents one trading day.
5. Click Create. You are now inside the Strategy Editor.

Tip

Stratifyre uses an instrument format of {AssetClass}:{Source}:{Symbol}. For example, EQ:NYSE:AAPL is an equity on the NYSE, and CRYPTO:BINANCE:BTCUSDT is a crypto pair on Binance. You can search by ticker name and the platform will resolve the full identifier for you.

Step 3: Add an Entry Rule

The idea behind this strategy is simple: buy when the RSI (Relative Strength Index) dips below 30 — a classic “oversold” signal — and then crosses back above it.

1. In the Strategy Editor, click Add Rule.
2. Set the rule type to Entry.
3. In the condition builder, create the following condition:
   • Left side: Select the indicator RSI with a period of 14.
   • Operator: Choose Crosses Above.
   • Right side: Enter the value 30.
4. Under Action, choose Buy with an order type of Market.
5. For Quantity, select Percent of Equity and enter 100 (invest the full available balance on each signal).
6. Click Save Rule.

This rule tells Stratifyre: “When the 14-period RSI crosses above 30, place a market buy order using 100% of available equity.”

Step 4: Add an Exit Rule

Now you need a rule that tells the strategy when to sell.

1. Click Add Rule again.
2. Set the rule type to Exit.
3. Create the condition:
   • Left side: Select RSI with a period of 14.
   • Operator: Choose Crosses Above.
   • Right side: Enter the value 70.
4. Under Action, choose Sell (close the position) with a Market order.
5. Click Save Rule.

This rule says: “When the 14-period RSI crosses above 70 — an overbought signal — sell the position.”

Note

This is deliberately a minimal example to get you started. Real strategies usually include stop-loss rules, position sizing logic, and additional filters. You can always add more rules later.

Step 5: Run a Backtest

Time to see how this strategy would have performed on real historical data.

1. Click the Backtest button in the top toolbar.
2. Configure the backtest settings:
   • Date Range: Set the start date to January 1, 2020 and the end date to December 31, 2024.
   • Starting Capital: Enter $10,000 (or leave the default).
   • Slippage Model: Keep the default setting — Stratifyre applies realistic slippage automatically.
3. Click Run Backtest.
4. The engine will process the historical data. Depending on the date range and resolution, this typically takes a few seconds.

Step 6: Review Your Results

Once the backtest completes, you are taken to the Backtest Results screen. Here is what to look at:

Equity Curve

The large chart at the top shows how your portfolio value changed over time. Look for the overall trend (up is good) and pay attention to drawdowns — the dips from peak to trough. A strategy that makes money but has enormous drawdowns may not be practical to trade.

Summary Metrics

Below the chart you will find a set of key performance numbers:

• Total Return — The overall percentage gain or loss.
• Annualized Return — What the return would be on a per-year basis.
• Maximum Drawdown — The largest peak-to-trough decline. Lower is better.
• Sharpe Ratio — A measure of risk-adjusted return. Generally, above 1.0 is considered good, above 2.0 is very good.
• Win Rate — The percentage of trades that were profitable.
• Profit Factor — Gross profits divided by gross losses. Above 1.0 means the strategy is profitable overall.

Trade Log

Scroll down to see a list of every trade the strategy executed. Each row shows the entry date, exit date, instrument, direction, entry price, exit price, and profit or loss. This is where you can start spotting patterns — are losses clustered around certain dates? Are wins getting smaller over time?

Strategy Replay

Click Strategy Replay to step through the backtest bar by bar. You can see the chart, your indicator values, and exactly when each rule triggered. This is the fastest way to understand why your strategy made each decision and is invaluable for debugging.

Tip

If the results are not what you expected, try adjusting the RSI period or the overbought/oversold thresholds. Even small changes can have a big impact. See the Backtesting docs for more on interpreting results and optimizing strategies.

What to Try Next

Now that you have the basics down, here are some ways to go deeper:

• Add a stop-loss rule — Protect against large losses by adding an exit rule that triggers if the position drops by a certain percentage.
• Try a different indicator — Swap RSI for MACD, Bollinger Bands, or any of the 106 indicators available in the expression builder.
• Test on a different instrument — Run the same strategy on CRYPTO:BINANCE:BTCUSDT or EQ:NASDAQ:MSFT and compare results.
• Set up a scanner — Use the Market Scanner to find which instruments currently match your entry conditions.
• Explore key concepts — Read the Key Concepts page to understand the terminology and building blocks of the platform.

Congratulations — you have built, backtested, and reviewed your first algorithmic trading strategy. The cycle of building, testing, and refining is where the real value lies. Keep iterating.