How to phrase an idea so AskFutures builds exactly what you mean — symbols, crossovers vs thresholds, entries vs exits, and the defaults it fills in.
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.
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.
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.
You didn’t say…
Default applied
A test period
The last 1 year of data
A strategy type
Day Trading
A bar size
1-minute bars
A direction
Both directions (long and short)
An exit, for a day-trading idea
End-of-day exit (flat overnight)
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.
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.
Chat
Go long MES when price crosses above the opening-range high, with a 1.5×ATR stop, and close any open position at the end of the day.
Now the exit is explicit (an ATR stop) alongside the default end-of-day
close. Still defaults the period and uses 1-minute bars.
Chat
On 5-minute bars, buy ES when RSI crosses above 30 and sell short when RSIcrosses below 70, but only enter between 9:30 and 11:00. Exit on theopposite signal.
A two-sided strategy (buy and sell short), a time-of-day filter, an
explicit conditional exit, and a non-default bar size.
Chat
Only go long GC on the 5-minute chart when the daily 20-period EMA is rising;enter on a 5-minute close above the opening-range high, use a 2× ATR trailingstop, and test it since 2020.
A higher-timeframe filter (daily EMA rising) gating a lower-timeframe
trigger, a trailing-stop exit, and a plain-English test period. See
multi-timeframe strategies.
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.
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.
