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Describe your idea the way you’d say it to another trader, and AskFutures builds the full strategy right then — entry rules, exit rules, filters, parameters, and a Strategy Flow chart. It builds immediately from what you said and only stops to ask if the instrument is genuinely missing. This page is about phrasing: a few small choices in how you word the idea decide exactly what gets built. Get these right and the first version is usually the one you wanted.
You never write code or formula syntax. You describe the idea in words; AskFutures fills in the precise rules. The phrasing tips below just help it read your intent correctly.

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Phrase it so it builds what you mean

1

Name the instrument

Say which futures market to trade — “Micro Nasdaq”, “MNQ”, “crude oil”, “gold”. If you leave it out, AskFutures has nothing to trade, so naming a symbol is the one thing worth being explicit about. You can use the common name or the ticker; both work. See choose a symbol.
2

Crossover vs threshold — "crosses above" vs "above"

This wording changes the rule:
  • “crosses above” is an event — it fires once, on the bar where the line moves from below to above. “Buy MNQ when the 9 EMA crosses above the 21 EMA.”
  • “above” (or “is above”, “while above”) is a state — it’s true on every bar the condition holds. “Buy MNQ while RSI is above 50.”
If you want a single trigger, say crosses above / crosses below. If you want a standing condition (often a filter), say above / below.
3

Direction — "buy" vs "sell short" vs a bare "exit"

The verb decides what the rule does:
  • “buy” / “go long” opens a long position.
  • “sell short” / “go short” opens a short position.
  • A bare “exit” / “close” / “flatten” closes whatever is open — it doesn’t open anything new.
Be careful with a plain “sell”: if you mean close my long, say “exit” or “close”; if you mean open a short, say “sell short”. Spelling out the direction keeps a long-only idea from quietly becoming two-sided.
4

Let the defaults fill the rest

Anything you don’t specify gets a sensible default (see below). You don’t have to state the period, the bar size, or the exit for a simple intraday idea — describe the signal and AskFutures fills in the rest, then notes what it assumed on the strategy card.

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What AskFutures fills in silently

When you don’t say otherwise, these defaults apply. They’re listed under Assumptions on the strategy card, so you can always see what was inferred.
To override a default, just name it: “on 5-minute bars”, “longs only”, “test since 2020”, “hold overnight”. More on the bar and session defaults in timeframes, bars and sessions.

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Example prompts, simple to rich

Chat
Long-only entry on a crossover event. Everything else defaults: last 1 year, Day Trading, 1-minute bars, end-of-day exit. Because you said “buy” (not “buy and sell short”), it stays long-only.

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It builds first, asks only if it must

AskFutures doesn’t interrogate you before building. It turns your idea into rules straight away, applies the defaults above, and shows you the result — anything it inferred or couldn’t add is recorded on the strategy card under Assumptions and Issues, not hidden. The one time it genuinely pauses is when the instrument is missing — if you name a market that isn’t one of the CME Group symbols it covers, it tells you rather than guessing a substitute. Everything else, it builds and annotates.
AskFutures covers CME Group futures only (CME, CBOT, NYMEX, COMEX). If you’re not sure a market is supported, see futures & symbols.

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After it builds

The strategy is defined but not yet tested. Run a backtest to see how it would have performed, then refine from there.
Backtest results are hypothetical and simulated — net of modeled slippage (default 1 tick) and commission. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Always test before you trade.

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Next steps

Run & read a backtest

Iterate & refine

Choose a symbol

What a strategy is made of