The comparison in brief
| Prebuilt strategies | Custom strategies | |
|---|---|---|
| Who designs the rules | The platform | You |
| Time to start | Minutes | Hours to weeks, including testing |
| Fit to your view | Fixed set of structures and settings | Anything the builder or code allows |
| Testing | Done by the platform; you can still backtest and paper trade | Yours to do |
| Configuration errors | Few: only size and on/off | Many places to go wrong |
| Edge | Shared with every user running the same strategy | Yours alone |
| Exchange approval | Needs an empanelled provider and an exchange Algo ID | Your own algo runs within SEBI's rules for client algos |
| Learning | Low | High |
What prebuilt strategies offer
- A tested starting point. The structure, strike selection, stop losses and time exits have been chosen and tested by people who have run them before.
- Fewer mistakes. Most live losses by new algo traders come from configuration errors: the wrong expiry, lots instead of units, a missing stop. A prebuilt strategy removes most of these.
- Speed. You can be paper trading a short straddle with a stop loss within minutes of connecting your broker.
- Compliance. In India, strategies a platform offers to retail traders must be registered with the exchange. Predefined strategies offered to retail traders must come from an empanelled provider and carry an exchange Algo ID. See how QuantPower works within the rules.
What prebuilt strategies cannot do
- Fit your view. A prebuilt iron condor sells the same strikes for everyone. If you expect a quiet week, you might want closer strikes; if you expect an event, wider ones or none.
- Fit your capital. A strategy designed around one Nifty lot may be too large or too small for your account.
- Give you a unique edge. Every user running the same strategy enters the same strikes at the same time. In liquid index options this rarely matters, but it limits how far a strategy can scale.
- Teach you why. Running a strategy you did not design shows you results, not reasons. When it has a bad month, you cannot judge whether the rules have stopped working or the month was unlucky.
What custom strategies offer
A custom strategy encodes your own observation of the market: the times of day you have noticed moves, the structures that fit your risk tolerance, the filters that keep you out of bad conditions. Building it forces every rule to be explicit, and testing it shows which of your beliefs hold up. The result fits your capital, your schedule and your tolerance for drawdown.
The cost is time, and the risk is error. Every parameter is a decision, every decision can be overfitted, and the strategy has to be tested properly before it earns trust. Our guide to no-code strategy design covers how to turn an idea into rules.
The usual path
Most traders who automate successfully follow the same sequence:
- Start with a prebuilt strategy in paper trading, to learn how the platform places orders, handles stops and reports results.
- Run it live at one lot with an MTM stop loss, to experience a live strategy's fills and drawdowns.
- Copy it into the builder and change one thing: the strike distance, the stop, the entry time. Backtest the change and compare.
- Build your own once you know what you want to change and why.
- Keep both running. A prebuilt strategy is a benchmark: if your custom version does worse than the one it was based on over several months, the changes were not improvements.
Testing applies to both
A prebuilt strategy's past results are the platform's, on the platform's assumptions. Before trading it, backtest it over the period you care about with your own cost and slippage settings, and paper trade it for a few weeks. SEBI bars brokers and their partners from referring to the past or expected returns of an algo, so no platform in India can lawfully promise what a prebuilt strategy will earn, and none should be trusted on that basis. Our guide to backtest performance metrics explains how to read the results.
Prebuilt and custom strategies in QuantPower
- Predefined algo bots: See algo trading bots.
- Strategy builder: build your own options, futures and equity strategies without code, backtest them and paper trade them before going live on any supported broker. See the strategy builder.
- Signal trading: run strategies whose logic lives in TradingView, with QuantPower placing the orders. See signal trading.
The QuantPower Standard plan is free during the Beta (₹299/month after); Professional is ₹499/month and Ultimate ₹999/month, GST extra. See pricing.
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Frequently asked questions
Are prebuilt trading strategies profitable?
Some are, in some periods. No strategy is profitable in every period, and SEBI's rules prohibit platforms from promising returns. Backtest and paper trade any prebuilt strategy before trading it, as you would your own.
Can I modify a prebuilt strategy?
In QuantPower, you can rebuild a prebuilt structure in the strategy builder and change its settings. The modified version is then a custom strategy, run under the rules for client algos rather than as a predefined strategy.
Is it better to build my own strategy?
Eventually, for most traders, because a custom strategy fits your view and capital. Starting with a prebuilt one teaches the mechanics with fewer costly errors.
Do prebuilt strategies need exchange approval in India?
Strategies a platform offers to retail traders must be registered with the exchange under SEBI's framework. Your own strategy, run on your own account within the order-rate limits, does not need registration. See SEBI's algo trading rules.
Which prebuilt strategy should a beginner start with?
A defined-risk structure such as an iron fly or iron condor, in paper trading first, at one lot. Avoid naked option selling until you have seen a strategy through a volatile week.