How to Create a Strategy in Tradetron? Step by Step Tutorial

Tradetron is a robust and feature-rich algorithmic cum automated trading platform for retail traders. Its patent-pending technology and cloud-based architecture has helped it gain enough limelight in the recent past. Folks with no previous background in computer programming can develop algorithmic strategies in Tradetron in just a few minutes, that’s the beauty of this platform! In this article, you’ll learn how to create a strategy in Tradetron in a step-by-step fashion. Furthermore, you’ll also get an understanding of deploying and monitoring your trading strategies.

Prerequisites

Before you start creating a strategy, there are few things you would need to do:

1. Use this link to open an account with Tradetron. Ignore if you already have an account. By default, you will be subscribed to their “free” plan and that should suffice to begin with.
2. Learn about Tradetron features, architecture, and getting started guide at this link.

Apart from these, we recommend you brush up on the concepts of technical analysis, futures & options trading, etc so that you understand what you are doing. Refer Zerodha Varsity for some excellent resources on the same.

Overview of Tradetron Strategies

In Tradetron terminology, a ‘strategy’ is a set of rules using which you can automate your trades. It is composed of entry/exit rules, position-sizing, stop losses, execution rules, etc.

You can configure the strategy using Tradetron UI in a simple drag and drop interface. And once the strategy is created, it can be deployed and linked to your broker account for automated execution.

Furthermore, a strategy can be private or public. A private strategy is used for self and not exposed to the outside world. While a public strategy can be seen by others. You can sell your public strategies in the Tradetron marketplace for a subscription fee or profit share.

We’ll learn all about these further in this article. 

Also Read: Automated Trading Software in India – Top Recommendations

How a Strategy is Organized in Tradetron?

Each strategy is Tradetron is organized into one or more sets. Each set has its own entry conditions, repair conditions, and exit conditions. And with every entry or repair condition, one or more positions are linked

An Entry Condition contains rules for entering the trade. When the entry condition is satisfied the positions linked to entry conditions are taken.

Repair Conditions are used to adjust your positions after entry.  Repair Once conditions if satisfied do not execute more than once while repair continuous conditions can be checked infinitely. For example: if you want to square off 50% of your positions when the profit exceeds 5%, you can define this condition in the repair once block. And if you want to continuously adjust your option positions to make it delta-neutral, you can define such conditions in the repair continuous block.

Exit Conditions contain rules for exiting all the positions from the set. There is no position linked to the exit condition as by default all the active positions from the set are exited.

There is a Universal Exit Condition outside all the sets which lets you exit all the active positions from all the sets defined.

Also Read: Algo Trading with Zerodha – Step by Step Tutorial

Let’s Create a Strategy

To create a strategy in Tradetron, you first need to have some strategy rules. These rules can be based on technical analysis, fundamental analysis, option greeks, etc

Below are the strategy rules that we are going to create in Tradetron:

Timeframe – Intraday 1 minute

Indicators Used – RSI(17), ADX(14)

Buy Rules – RSI(17) >= 75 AND ADX(14) >= 25

Short Rules – RSI(17) <= 25 AND ADX(14) >= 25

Sell Rules – Same as Short Condition OR Time >= 03:15 PM

Cover Rules – Same as Cover Condition OR Time >= 03:15 PM

Stop Loss – 1 %

Targets – No fixed target

Instruments – Nifty or Banknifty Futures

These rules would be organized in a Tradetron strategy as below:

Buy Rules – Set 1 Entry Conditions

Sell Rules and Buy SL  – Set 1 Exit Conditions 

Short Rules – Set 2 Entry Conditions

Cover Rules and Short SL  – Set 2 Exit Conditions

You’ll learn more about how these rules are organized further in this article.

I hope you have signed up for Tradetron and logged in. If not please use this link.

Step 1: Fill in the strategy name and Description

Once you login to the Tradetron dashboard, click on ‘Strategies -> Create’ from the top menu bar.

The strategy creation page will appear where you need to fill in the strategy name, tags, and description. These things are very important if you are planning to sell your strategy as a subscription

Step 2: Define a List

Each set in the strategy is linked with a list. The list contains instruments you want the strategy conditions to be checked on. If you don’t want your strategy to run on multiple instruments, you may skip this step.

Just below the description box, you would see Set No 1 defined. And besides that, you can select a list from the dropdown. 

For example: if you select Nifty 50 in the list dropdown, the set entry/repair conditions would be checked on every stock listed in Nifty 50.

Click on 3 dots beside the list dropdown followed by the ADD button to create a new list.

You can add any number of instruments to the list and click on the SAVE button. However, one list can only contain instruments from a single exchange.

The strategy that we are working on is supposed to take positions on Nifty or Banknifty futures, so I have selected the predefined index_fut list from the dropdown.

Step 3: Define Entry Conditions

Click on the +Add button inside the Entry Conditions block under Set 1. It will open up a condition builder.

Here, we’ll define our Buy rules – RSI(17) >= 75 AND ADX(14) >= 25

Click on the + Condition button on the top right of the condition builder window to define conditions. You can define multiple conditions and tie them with AND or OR operators. 

Any rules based on the technical indicators are driven via the ‘Position’ keyword in Tradetron. This keyword provides you data about the specified position in the chart. The current candle corresponds to position 0, previous candle is position -1, previous to that is position -2… and so on.

For each position, you can fetch price data (open, high, low, close) or the value of technical indicators. 

Once you add a Position keyword in your condition, you can further define the timeframe and instrument name(s).

Click on the ‘Symbol’ keyword underneath Position to define the candle type (timeframe), and the underlying. If you want to test the condition on the spot prices, select underlying as ‘Instrument Name’, and if you want to test on futures prices, select underlying as ‘Futures’

And then click on the ‘Instrument Name’ keyword to define the instrument(s) where you want the condition to be checked.

I have defined a list here as I want my strategy to be checked against each instrument in the list.

Finally, click on the RSI/ADX keyword in case you need to change the default lookback period of these indicators. 

To check if RSI(17) is greater than or equal to 75, use the ‘>=’ operator along with the ‘number 75’. Number is a keyword used to define any numbers.

Similarly, build a condition for ADX(14) is greater than equal to 25.

Click on the + Submit button once you have defined both the conditions.

Step 4: Define Entry Positions

When the entry conditions are satisfied i.e. RSI(17) >= 75 AND ADX(14) >= 25, then the system should take BUY position.

Click on the +Add button inside the Positions block under Set 1. It will open up a position builder. Click on the “Buy” option at the top (it is the default), and add inputs as below:

The inputs in the position builder are the same as what you enter while manually placing an order through your broker terminal.

Exchange, Type, and List are populated by default based on the list you selected in step 1. You need to manually fill in the Product, Expiry, and Quantity. Expiry and Quantity can be a constant value OR can be derived using a formula by using the ‘Fx’ button.

Click on the ‘Add’ button once you have defined the positions.

Step 5: Define Exit Conditions

The exit conditions in set 1 are equivalent to our ‘Sell’ rules. The buy position should exit when one of the below conditions are fulfilled:

1. RSI(17) <= 25 AND ADX(14) >= 25 OR
2. Stop Loss of 1% is hit

Click on the +Add button inside the Exit Conditions block under Set 1. It will open up a condition builder similar to Step 3. Click on the + Condition option at the top and add conditions as below:

Please note that the conditions are divided into two groups separated by an OR operator. The first group checks if RSI(17) <= 25 AND ADX(14) >= 25, and the second group checks the stop loss. If either of the two group’s conditions is met, all the open positions in Set 1 are exited.

The conditions in the first group are pretty straight forward and are similar to what we defined in Step 3 (with the difference of comparison operators and numbers).

In the second group, we are checking if the last traded price (LTP) of the futures instrument is less than 1% of the entry price.

The three new keywords used in this condition are LTP, Traded Instrument, and Futures.

First LTP keyword is added and ‘Futures’ is selected under the Instruments dropdown. This would make sure that the last traded price of the futures quote is fetched.

Next, select the Futures keyword (under LTP) and select index_fut list as the underlying.

The Traded Instrument keyword is used to fetch the details of the instrument that is already traded through the strategy. In this case, we would fetch the entry price and compare it with LTP.

Click on the + Submit button once you have the conditions.

Step 6: Define Set 2 Entry and Exit Conditions

Our strategy involved two sets. In set 1, the entry and exit conditions for the long trades are defined.

Similarly, in set 2, you need to define entry and exit conditions for the short trades

You can copy-paste conditions within the sets to avoid rework. If you don’t see a paste button above the conditions box, refresh the page or update/save the strategy.

The entry condition in set 2 would check if RSI(17) <= 25 AND ADX(14) >= 25. Its configured as below:

And if the entry conditions are fulfilled, a Short position should be taken.

The exit conditions in set 2 are equivalent to our ‘Cover’ rules. The short position should exit when one of the below conditions are fulfilled:

1. RSI(17) >= 75 AND ADX(14) >= 25 OR
2. Stop Loss of 1% is hit

These rules can be configured in a similar fashion like how we did in Set 1. See screenshot below:

Keep saving your strategy periodically to avoid any loss of work.

Step 7: Define Universal Exit Conditions

A Universal Exit condition closes all the open positions in the strategy irrespective of the set where they originated from.

Since our strategy works on the intraday timeframe, all the positions should be closed by end of the trading day. For the safer side, we’ll close our positions 15 minutes before the exchange close time (3:15 PM for NSE). We’ll configure this condition under universal exit.

Defining any condition in a universal exit block is similar to how we did it in Entry or Exit blocks.

‘Time()’ is a function that returns the current time in MMSS format. It is checked against the constant number 1515 (3:15 PM), and if the current time exceeds 1515 then all the open positions are exited.

Step 8: Advanced Settings

Leave the advanced setting to default values. We’ll cover them in more detail in our future articles.

Step 9: Save your Strategy

On completing the above steps, click on the Create/Update button at the bottom to save your strategy. You can see your strategies from the ‘Strategies -> My Strategies’ link at the menu bar. From this page, you can deploy or edit your strategy.

Also Read: Tradetron Strategy Templates

Deploying your Tradetron Strategy

Deploying a strategy means activating it for live trading. To deploy, you’ll need to provide the below details on the deployment page:

1. Multiplier – Denotes your position size. Default is 1x which means the same number of quantities/lots would be traded what is specified in the position builder. If you change it to 2x, double quantity would be traded, and so on.
2. Execution Type – You have 4 options here – Live Auto, Live Auto One Click, Live Offline, Paper Trading. 
   1. Live Auto – Orders would be placed automatically without any manual confirmation from the user
   2. Live Auto Once Click – Requires confirmation from the user before placing the order
   3. Live Offline – Orders are not automatically sent to the broker, rather a notification is generated on Email/Whatsapp/SMS, etc. Based on the notification you can manually place the order.
   4. Paper Trading – Simulation of real trading. None of the orders are sent to the broker. However, all the simulated trades are recorded for your analysis.
3. Broker – All your added brokers will show up in the dropdown. Select the one that you want to use for this strategy. For paper trading, the broker is defaulted to ‘TT Paper Trading’. To learn how to add a broker, check out this article.

Click on the Deploy button once you have filled in the required details.

After the strategy is successfully deployed, you are good to go. Monitor if the trades are correctly executed during market hours. You will get notifications for all the trades.

Monitor your Trades

Once the strategy is deployed, you can view the same in the ‘Strategies -> Deployed’ link from the menu bar.

The deployed strategies page contains a list of all the strategies that you have deployed for live or paper trading.

Each deployed strategy can have different statuses as given below:

1. Active – Checking for entry conditions from all the sets in the strategy, but none of the conditions have been satisfied yet.
2. Paused – The strategy has been manually paused, and hence no conditions are being checked. The existing positions would remain untouched until the strategy reactivated or exited 
3. Blocked – The strategy has been blocked for execution. Contact Tradetron support to know the actual reason for the blockage.
4. Live-Entered – One or more entry conditions are satisfied and live positions have been taken.
5. Exited – All the exit conditions from all the sets have been satisfied, hence no position is active. Based on what you defined in the advanced properties, the strategy would automatically reactivate after the time specified or else you can activate it manually.
6. Live-Tranching – For strategies involving huge quantities, you can choose to divide the quantities into multiple orders to average your cost. This process is called Tranching and can be configured from the advanced settings section of the strategy. 

Your deployed strategy remains in Live-Tranching status unless all the positions are fully taken. In the interim, no conditions are being checked. 

1. Awaiting-OneClick – If your execution type is ‘Live Auto One Click’, then the system waits for manual confirmation of the positions to be taken by the user. In the interim, no conditions are being checked. 
2. Error-Execution – If there is an error executing the trade, the strategy goes into Error-Execution status. You can know more about the error by checking the notification logs. The system waits for the user to fix the problem and click on “Retry” next to this status. In the interim, no conditions are being checked 
3. Archived – You can archive a strategy if you no longer want to trade based on it. An archived strategy can still be used for reporting and inspection purposes. 

In the above screenshot, the status is ‘Live-Entered’ which means the positions are already taken. You can see the live positions in the tabular format with the instruments name, quantity, LTP, and P&L.

Clicking on each individual symbol would show you the entry/exit price and time. The execution price may vary from broker to broker as there may be some latency involved. The slippage caused due to this latency is mostly against you, so you should always consider it while estimating your total P&L.

The counter represents one full cycle of entry and exit. The counter in the screenshot is 1, which means it’s the first trade. If any repair conditions are satisfied and more orders are placed, then also the counter would remain 1. However, if the exit condition is satisfied, and the strategy is activated again (either manually or automatically) then the counter would change to 2.

Besides the counter number, you’ll see the total profit & loss for that counter.

Click on the ‘3 dots’ on the top right of strategy to see various operations you can perform on a deployed strategy. The strategy can be paused, archived, or reactivated from here. And also you can delete/edit the strategy.

Ideally, there is no need to continuously monitor the strategy as the Tradetron platform takes care of the execution, however, you may need to take some manual actions in case the strategy goes into an error state. Keep the Email/Whatsapp notifications enabled so that you can act immediately.

Also Read: Tradetron Video Tutorials

Verify your Strategy Conditions

After you create a strategy in Tradetron, it is very important to verify if your strategy conditions are working as expected or not. The best way to verify is to deploy your strategy in paper trading mode and check every trade.

Our strategy takes Buy position when  RSI(17) >= 75 AND ADX(14) >= 25 in 1 minute timeframe.

And after deploying this strategy live, there was a Buy position taken in Nifty Futures on Dec 29, 1:10 PM. Let’s verify if the conditions were correctly checked or not.

Let me first show you the 1-minute candlestick chart of Nifty in Tradingview. I have added RSI(17) and ADX(14) to the chart.

As you can see, at 13:09 the RSI value was 77.99 (>75) and the ADX value was 33.59 (>25). This suffices the buy condition, and at the next candle i.e.13:10 candle buy position is taken.

The source of data for Tradetron is not Tradingview, but still, you will see the same numbers in the Tradetron notification log. Click on the 3 dots on the top right of deployed strategy and then click on ‘Notification Log’

You’ll see something like below in a popup window:

Every log has a timestamp associated with it. Copy the content of the log in a text editor and format it properly so that it is readable.

Below is the screenshot of formatted log contents:

In the highlighted portions of the above screenshot, you’ll see that Tradetron computes RSI and ADX values and compares them with numbers 75 and 25 respectively. 

The logs may look cryptic initially but you’ll get a hang of it gradually.

In a nutshell, the notification log is the best place to go to check/debug your strategy conditions. Carefully check each entry in the notification log to verify your entry/exit conditions. Contact Tradetron support over chat or email if you see anything odd.

Final Thoughts

I hope you got a fair idea of how to create, deploy, and monitor your strategies in Tradetron. It’s fairly simple and intuitive platform to build a fully automated trading system from scratch. Please be mindful that you cannot create a profitable strategy in a day or two, it takes exhaustive research and several iterations to come up with something useful.

Tradetron is just an enabler that lets you simplify the way you trade, however, it’s not a money-making machine. If used wisely, you’ll get excellent results from Tradetron, many of our subscribers have already built profitable strategies and some are on the way.

Click here to sign up for the upcoming Tradetron webinar where you’ll get a live demo of the entire platform along with some strategy creation tutorials.

Please let us know if you want to learn anything specific about the Tradetron platform. We’ll love to publish more articles in the future.