# Strategy editor

> How to build and tune a strategy in TradeLabs Companion: signal source, brokers, sizing, risk, protections, and notifications, tab by tab.

*Source: https://tradelabs.org/docs/copy-trading/strategy-editor*

The strategy editor is a full page, one per strategy, where you decide what a strategy listens to, where it trades, how big, and what guardrails run before each order. Open it from the **Strategies** page by clicking a strategy.

Strategies are cloud-only, so you need to be signed in for edits to save. Changes save as you type; there is no separate save button.

*Every strategy is the same shape: a signal comes in, your sections decide what to do with it, and the order goes out to your brokers.*

![The strategy editor in the app](/docs-assets/app-strategy-editor.png)
*The editor header carries the name, meta chips, readiness, and the action cluster*

## The header

Across the top row you get, left to right:

- A back arrow (**All strategies**) to return to the list.
- The strategy name. Click it to rename inline. Enter commits, Escape reverts.
- A source badge, plus instrument, direction, broker count, and size chips.
- A readiness pill that opens a list of errors, warnings, and tips. Click an item to jump to the field it points at.

On the right side is the action cluster:

- **Schedule** to set market-hours or custom run windows.
- A run toggle that reads **Running** or **Paused**.
- **Simulate** to fire a test signal at the strategy.
- **Duplicate** (copy icon) and **Delete** (trash icon).

RSA strategies also show a retrigger control here.

> **Note**
>
> Turning on an RSA serverside strategy while the U.S. market is closed prompts you first. You can turn it on anyway, schedule it for market hours, or cancel.

## Which tabs you see

![The strategy editor's tab strip: General, Brokers, Sizing, Risk and exits, Filters, Protections, Notifications](/docs-assets/app-strategy-editor-tabs.png)

1. **General** — source, instrument, direction, ticker.
2. **Brokers** — which accounts this strategy fires into.
3. **Sizing** — how big each trade is.
4. **Risk & exits** — stop loss, take profit, trailing.
5. **Protections** — the guardrails to set before going live.

Every strategy shows **General**, **Brokers**, **Sizing**, **Filters**, **Protections**, and **Notifications**. The rest depend on the instrument and the source:

| Tab | Shows up for |
| --- | --- |
| **AI** | Discord and Telegram sources. Hidden on TradingView, and on RSA unless you point it at Discord |
| **Risk & exits** | Stocks, options, spreads, futures, crypto, prediction markets |
| **Exits** | Memecoins — a percent-only exits tab of its own |

Two exceptions to "every strategy": **Filters** is hidden on RSA, and RSA replaces **Risk & exits** with a note pointing at the per-broker holdings page.

## General

![The General tab of the strategy editor, with the signal source and basics sections](/docs-assets/app-strategy-editor-annotated.png)

1. **Signal source** — where your calls come from.
2. **Instrument** — decides the fields and brokers you see.
3. **Direction, ticker, and order type** — what to trade.
4. **Default expiration** — options only: which expiry a bare call maps to.

The General tab holds the signal source and the basics, in that order.

### Signal source

Pick where the strategy listens with the **Source** chips: Discord, TradingView, or Telegram. Some instruments narrow the list — memecoins force Discord, and RSA offers **Serverside** (its detection feed, and the default) or **Discord**. TradingView only appears for stocks, options, and spreads.

- **Discord** — pick a **Channel**.
- **Telegram** — pick from **Chats**, or type a chat ID, name, or `@handle` into the box beside it. Both controls edit the same value.
- **TradingView** — list **Alert names**. Leave it empty and the strategy matches alerts named after itself.

Discord and Telegram both offer an optional **Exit channel** (**Exit chat** on Telegram), for callers who post entries in one room and exits in another, and **Inherit trade details from message**, which uses what the message says instead of the strategy defaults.

> **Note**
>
> A split exit channel is only ever acted on by **AI selling** on the AI tab. With that off, the strategy reads the exit room and does nothing.

### Basics

![The Basics section of the General tab, with name, instrument, direction, ticker, order types and the options group](/docs-assets/app-strategy-basics.png)
*Basics on an options strategy: identity, then order routing, then the options group.*

Under **Identity** set the **Name** and **Instrument**. Under **Order routing** you get **Direction**, **Ticker**, **Entry**, **Exit**, and **Time in force**.

Direction is relabelled per instrument: **Calls / Puts / Both** on options, **Yes / No / Both** on prediction markets, **Long / Short / Both** everywhere else.

Entry and Exit are **Market** or **Limit**. Limit is only offered on the brokers that have a limit code path — Tradier, IBKR, Schwab and Robinhood; everywhere else the control locks to a **Market** tile. Robinhood options are the reverse: they are limit-only, so Market is hidden there instead.

Choosing Limit reveals an **Entry limit price** (or **Exit limit price**) side of **Bid**, **Mid**, or **Ask**. Options fed by Discord or Telegram on Tradier, IBKR, Schwab or Robinhood get a fourth choice, **From alert**, which posts at the price the caller wrote. On IBKR that choice is entry-only.

> **Note**
>
> A limit exit that never fills leaves the position open. The bot does not fall back to a market order, so you would need to close it yourself.

Options and spreads add an **Options** group with **Default expiration** (or **Spread expiration**) and **Strike position** (In the money / At the money / Out of the money). Futures show a **Contract** picker instead — **Current**, **Next**, **Third**, or **Pin** a specific month from the live IBKR chain.

Two fields appear only on certain broker and instrument pairs:

- **Allow extended hours** — Tradier stocks, and IBKR and Schwab stocks and options. Schwab needs a **Limit** order to accept one.
- **Short locate %** — DAS Trader (STG) on stocks and RSA.

## Brokers

![The Brokers tab of the strategy editor, listing eligible broker accounts](/docs-assets/app-strategy-brokers.png)

Pick which broker or brokers the strategy trades through. Single-broker instruments route to one; RSA fans out to every broker you check. The grid shows each eligible broker with its account count. If a broker supports routing to a specific account, a **Route to account** picker appears below the grid; leave it empty and the strategy uses the first available account.

If nothing is eligible you see **No eligible broker configured** with a note on which brokers that instrument needs. Add accounts on the **Brokers** page.

## Sizing

![The Sizing tab of the strategy editor, with the size mode and default quantity](/docs-assets/app-strategy-sizing.png)

For most instruments, pick **How to pick the trade size**: **Fixed size** or **Match by keyword**. Then set the **Default quantity** and its unit (**Shares** or **Contracts**, **Dollars**, or **Percent**). Percent sizing adds a **Percent sizing basis** choice of **Available Funds** or **Net Liquidation**.

Match by keyword keeps the quantity box as the fallback — renamed **Default size (no keyword match)** — and adds the rules table beneath it.

RSA sizing is simpler: **Per-broker size** is either **Fixed · 1 share** or **Follow signal**.

Memecoins hide the unit picker and add the swap controls here: **Slippage tolerance**, **Dynamic slippage**, **Priority fee**, **Routing method** (Auto, Jupiter, Raydium), **Dip-buy mode** with its **Dip %** and **Dip timer**, and **Retry on RPC timeout**.

## AI

![The AI tab of the strategy editor, with AI selling on and its trim and contract-match rows revealed beneath it](/docs-assets/app-strategy-ai.png)
*The AI tab. Turning on AI selling reveals the rows that depend on it; the rest are grouped under Reading signals, Auto exits from message, and Memory.*

Available for Discord and Telegram signals; hidden on TradingView, which carries no conversation to read. All of it is optional.

**AI selling** is the headline switch — let the model read exits and trims out of the thread and act on them. Turning it on reveals **Trim selling** (with a **Trim size** of From alert, 5%, 25% or 50%), **Smart contract match** and its tie-break for when more than one held contract matches, and, on a strategy with a split exit channel, **Also take exits from the entry channel**.

Under **Reading signals**: **Automatic quantity** and **Process images in signals**.

Under **Auto exits from message**: **Auto stop loss**, **Auto take profit**, and **Auto trim take profit**. Turning any of them on reveals **Wait for levels posted separately** — a number of seconds an entry missing its levels will wait for a follow-up message before firing with whatever arrived.

**Memory** is a four-way choice of **None**, **Limited**, **Normal**, or **Max**, controlling how much prior conversation the model sees on each parse.

Memecoins get a trimmed version of this tab: AI selling, trim selling, image processing and memory. The memecoin parser emits no quantity, strike or levels, so those rows are hidden rather than left wired to nothing.

## Risk & exits

![The Risk and exits tab of the strategy editor, with stop loss, take profit and trailing stop](/docs-assets/app-strategy-risk.png)

Set **Stop loss**, **Take profit**, and **Trailing stop** as a percent or a dollar amount. Leave a field empty to skip it. Crypto and prediction markets have no trailing stop, so that box does not appear for them.

Once a take profit is set, a **Take-profit behavior** panel lets you choose **Close all** or **Sell in stages**. Sell in stages opens a ladder editor where each level is a gain and a share of the original position.

Once a trailing stop is set, a **Trailing-stop behavior** panel offers a mode:

| Mode | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Standard** | The trail arms as soon as the position opens. |
| **Arm at profit** | The trail stays off until profit reaches your threshold. |
| **Breakeven flip** | At its threshold, the stop jumps to your entry price. |
| **Replace take profit** | Only offered when a take profit is set. The take-profit leg is dropped, and that price becomes the point the trail arms at. |
| **Partial TP** | Trims a slice at the target and leaves the rest trailing. |

The distance the stop sits behind the peak is the number in the **Trailing stop** box above — the panel shows it read-only.

## Filters

![The Filters tab of the strategy editor, with the Per-trader rules and Strategy-wide sub-tabs](/docs-assets/app-strategy-filters.png)
*The Filters tab opens on Per-trader rules. Strategy-wide is the second sub-tab.*

Two views. **Per-trader rules** apply rules keyed to a trader. **Strategy-wide** applies to every signal: a **Keyword filter mode** (**Blacklist** or **Whitelist**), **How to match keywords** (**Exact word** or **Loose**), and the **Keyword whitelist** and **Keyword blacklist** lists.

## Protections

![The Protections tab of the strategy editor, grouped into signal rules, order safety and position limits](/docs-assets/app-strategy-protections.png)

Guardrails that run before every trade, grouped into **Signal rules**, **Order safety**, and **Position limits**. The section header counts how many of the applicable ones are armed, and each group carries chips summarising what is on. Which rows appear depends on the instrument and broker; the common ones are:

- **Duplicate protection** and **Avoid stacking the same ticker** under Signal rules.
- **Slippage cap**, **Cancellation timer**, and **Entry delay** under Order safety.
- **Maximum trade value**, **Double-down protection**, and **Block-exit threshold** under Position limits.

Others surface only where they mean something: **Smart price override** and **Smart expiration detection** on the option brokers, **Buy limit offset** and **Sell limit offset** once you pick a Limit order, and the two 0DTE rules on options and spreads.

RSA strategies use this tab for **Process sell signals** and **Minimum profit**.

> **Note**
>
> **Process sell signals** must stay on for RSA to honor close and sell-to-close alerts. With it off, those alerts are dropped.

## Exits

![The Exits tab on a memecoin strategy, with stop loss, take profit, take-profit style, trailing activation and distance, and secure initial investment](/docs-assets/app-strategy-exits.png)
*The memecoin Exits tab. Every value is a percentage of your entry price.*

Memecoins swap the Risk & exits tab for an **Exits** tab of their own, because on-chain swaps have no broker-side bracket to hang a dollar stop on. Every value here is a percentage of your entry price:

- **Stop loss** and **Take profit**.
- **Take-profit style** — **Close all**, or **Sell in stages** with a ladder of gains and amounts.
- **Trailing activation** — the gain at which trailing starts — and **Trailing distance**, how far below the peak it sells.
- **Secure initial investment** — at the gain you set, sell just enough to pull your original stake back out and let the rest ride.

See [Memecoins](/docs/reference/instruments/memecoins/) for the rest of the memecoin setup.

## Notifications

![The Notifications tab of the strategy editor, with the Send to Discord master switch on and the webhook, message options and forward-only card below it](/docs-assets/app-strategy-notifications.png)
*The Notifications tab with **Send to Discord** on. The subtitle resolves to where messages actually land.*

Mirror this strategy's events to a Discord webhook. The tab opens with a master switch, **Send to Discord**; the rest appears once it is on.

Set a **Custom webhook URL** to send this strategy somewhere specific, or leave it empty to inherit the global webhook from **Settings**. **Compact embeds** and **Broker error alerts** tune what gets sent.

> **Note**
>
> **Forward-only mode**, at the bottom of this tab on everything except RSA, relays every signal to your webhook and places no orders at all — no entries, no stops, no exits. It is for read-only mirroring. A strategy that has gone quiet is worth checking here first.