Settings

Tuned defaults. Change little, verify everything.

Every build ships with its defaults set to the configuration we verified. Every input has a tooltip in TradingView explaining exactly what it does — this page gives you the map and the rules.

Defaults first

The default is the product.

Do I need to change anything? #

No. The defaults are the verified configuration — the one whose history you can check in the Strategy Tester. The optional extras (protective stops, filters, the short side) ship off precisely so that what you backtest is what you run.

The one setting worth a decision: risk per trade #

This is the throttle. Vektor sizes every position as your risk budget divided by the distance to the exit line, so this one number decides how hard the whole system pushes — and it scales return and drawdown together. Decide it with the risk management basics page open.

What the settings do

The inputs, grouped as you'll find them.

Names vary slightly between the gold and Bitcoin builds; the groups are the same. Hover any input in TradingView for its full tooltip.

Entry #

The breakout lookback, set in days: how fresh a new high has to be to count as a trend. Lower means more, earlier entries; higher means fewer, more established ones. The gold build adds its session window and news-volatility circuit breaker here.

Exit — the trail #

Sensitivity and width of the trailing exit line. A wider trail gives the trend room to breathe and holds through deeper pullbacks; a tighter one exits sooner and gives back less at the turn. The defaults sit on a tested plateau — small changes here change the character of every trade.

Protective layers (off by default) #

Three optional stops layered under the trail, set in R (see reading the signal): an initial hard stop that cuts failed breakouts early, a breakeven lock so a trade that ran a chosen R multiple in profit can no longer close red, and a profit lock that tightens the trail after a big run so a fat winner can't hand it all back. Each has a cost as well as a benefit — A/B them in the tester before trusting them.

Risk & exposure #

Risk per trade (the throttle), a hard exposure ceiling that caps position size regardless of what the risk math asks for, and — on Bitcoin — a bounded volatility clamp that trims size when the market runs hot. The ceiling is a cap, not a target.

Optional filters #

Bitcoin: a trend-regime filter that only takes entries aligned with the long-term trend (fewer, cleaner trades, smoother curve, a little less peak return) and the off-by-default short side. Gold: the weekend flatten for CFD feeds. All off or conservative by default.

Display #

Toggles for the benchmark table, the state table, and the chart plots. Cosmetic only — they change nothing about the trades.

If you tune

Three rules keep you honest.

One change at a time

Change a single input, re-run the Strategy Tester over years of history — including a rough stretch, not just a friendly one — and compare before/after. Two changes at once means you learn nothing.

Trust plateaus, not peaks

A setting is only real if its neighbours also work. If 2.5 shines but 2.0 and 3.0 fall apart, that lone spike is curve-fit and will not survive live. Pick from the flat, boring plateau.

Distrust beautiful backtests

Trend systems have a humble shape: win rates well under half, winners a couple of times the size of losers. A tweak that produces a very high win rate or a spectacular profit factor has almost always sprung a leak, not found an edge.

+Reset to defaults any time via the settings dialog's Defaults button. When in doubt, go back to stock and re-verify.

Didn't find it?

A real person reads every message.

The assistant in the corner answers most questions on the spot, and it knows these pages. For anything account-specific, email the desk at desk@vektoralgo.com — no ticket queue, no bots.

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