# How do I find a strategy idea when I have no rules of my own?

Strategies & bots · Where: Strategy › Discovery › Build your edge · Updated 2026-10-20

Build your edge lists five documented ideas: trend following, breakout, pullback in a trend, mean reversion and range. Each row says what market behaviour the idea bets on, when it tends to fail, and where the books cover it. Pick one and it loads into the builder with its rules, exits and a starting risk per trade, labelled an idea to test.

## Step by step

1. **Read the bet** One sentence on what the idea assumes about how markets move. If you do not believe the sentence, the rules under it are not for you.
2. **Read the failure** Every idea has a market it loses in. Trend following loses sideways, mean reversion loses in a trend. Knowing it in advance is what makes the losses bearable.
3. **Load it** Click the row. The builder opens with the rules in Entry rules, the target and stop in Exits, and Risk-based sizing with a starting number you will change.
4. **Or start blank** An empty builder for your own rules, from the first one.
5. **Or from the chart** Plot an indicator in the Indicator Builder, then send it here with Use in a strategy.
6. **Next** The checklist beside the builder, then Run backtest.

## Good to know

- None of the five is a strategy that wins. Each is a bet written out so you can test it on real candles; the test, not the label, decides.

Web page: https://buildtrade.app/help/pick-an-idea-to-test/