> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.askfutures.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Strategies > What a strategy is in AskFutures, and the parts every strategy is made of. A **strategy** is a precise, rule-based trading plan that AskFutures builds from your plain-English description. You describe the idea; AskFutures writes it down exactly as entry rules, exit rules, filters, and parameters — then backtests it. You never see or write any code or formula syntax. You describe the idea in words; the structure below is what AskFutures fills in for you, and what you see on the strategy card. ## The anatomy of a strategy The traded futures symbol (e.g. `MNQ`), plus any extra markets the rules *read* but don't trade (e.g. trade `ES`, watch `NQ`). The condition that opens a position. **Buy** opens a long; **sell short** opens a short. A strategy can be long-only, short-only, or both. Either a *conditional exit* (close when a condition is true) or a *structured exit* (a stop, target, trailing stop, max-time, or end-of-day close). See [Risk & trade management](/concepts/risk-and-trade-management). Conditions that thin out signals without changing the entry — time-of-day gates ("only 9:30–11:00") or frequency limits ("first trade of the day"). Named values like `ema_fast_period = 9` or `stop_loss = 400`. These are what you (or the [optimizer](/concepts/optimization)) can sweep. ## How the parts fit together ```mermaid theme={null} flowchart LR M[Market] --> E[Entry rule] E --> X[Exit rule] F[Trade filters] --> E P[Parameters] -.tune.-> E & X & F E & X & F --> ENG[Backtest engine] ``` ## What you see vs. what runs Under the hood a strategy is a compact, structured plan. You never see that internal form — on the strategy card you see entries, exits, filters, and parameters, plus a **Strategy Flow** chart of the logic. ## When something can't be built If your request is ambiguous or asks for something unsupported, the strategy carries notes instead of silently dropping it: What AskFutures inferred — for example, defaulting to 1-minute bars, the last 1 year of data, and both directions. What it couldn't add, and why — so you're never left guessing. **"Signal" means three different things.** A *rule firing* (an entry/exit signal), the per-bar *signal files* a backtest produces, and the predicted *trigger price* for a pending entry. We disambiguate each where it appears. ## Next steps