What belongs in a trading strategy
A useful strategy is more specific than a thesis. “ETH looks strong” is a view. A strategy has the structure needed to test and monitor that view.
At minimum, define:
- Market: the asset, venue, and instrument, such as spot, futures, options, or perpetual futures.
- Inputs: price, volume, funding, open interest, news, macro events, prediction-market odds, or onchain flows.
- Trigger: the exact condition that makes the strategy fire.
- Cooldown: how often the rule can fire before it becomes duplicate noise.
- Risk controls: position sizing, invalidation, fees, slippage, and execution limits.
Strategy versus execution
Strategy and execution are separate jobs. A strategy decides what condition matters. Execution decides how an order is routed, sized, confirmed, and audited.
That distinction is why serious workflows backtest and monitor the strategy before automating execution. A rule can be valuable as an alert even if it is not yet safe to trade automatically.
Why plain-English strategies still need structure
Plain English is useful for expressing intent, but the final rule has to be typed and inspectable. If two people cannot agree when the rule should fire, it is not ready for a backtest.
The best automated workflow keeps both pieces: human-readable strategy intent plus a structured rule that can be replayed, reviewed, and monitored.