Strategy Design Checklist

Before you write a single rule, clarify the purpose and constraints of your strategy.

1) State the hypothesis

What market behavior are you exploiting? Momentum, mean reversion, or volatility expansion?

2) Define entry and exit rules

Write precise, measurable conditions. Avoid subjective language.

3) Set risk parameters

Specify stop-loss logic, take-profit rules, and max loss per trade.

4) Confirm data availability

Make sure the indicators and timeframes are available in your data source.

5) Choose evaluation metrics

Pick metrics like Sharpe, profit factor, and max drawdown based on your goals.

6) Decide go-live criteria

Only deploy strategies that pass your validation thresholds across multiple regimes.
A clear checklist reduces bias and speeds up iteration.