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Your First Strategy

This walkthrough creates a simple strategy, backtests it, and starts paper trading.

After account setup, Quantly runs a first-run product tour that starts on the Dashboard and visits Strategies, Watchlist, Explore, Track Record, and Settings. It finishes in the strategy editor, where it walks you through building and backtesting your first strategy. Replay it from Settings → Profile or the command palette (Cmd/Ctrl+K).

Strategy tree editor with asset and condition nodes
The tree builder is where you define strategy logic.

Create a strategy

Section titled “Create a strategy”

You can build manually in the tree editor or use Generate with AI to describe what you want. See AI Generation for in-app AI, or MCP to connect an external assistant.

Manual build (this walkthrough)

Section titled “Manual build (this walkthrough)”
1

Go to Strategies and click New Strategy.

2

Name your strategy (for example, “SPY Hold”).

3

In the tree builder, add an Asset node and set the ticker to SPY. The in-app tour walks this with you on a new strategy, then points at the chart, Risk Analysis (Monte Carlo), and the Tear Sheet once the backtest has data.

For a simple always-hold strategy, a single Asset node is enough. The in-app tour also points at the add-block menu so you can explore Group, If / Else, Filter, Scale, and Reference later. See Node Types and Tree Builder.

Backtest

Section titled “Backtest”
1

Open the Performance tab in the strategy editor.

2

Select a date range (for example, 3Y or MAX).

3

Review the equity curve, CAGR, Sharpe ratio, and max drawdown.

Learn more in Backtesting.

Invest and deploy

Section titled “Invest and deploy”
1

Click Add Investment (or Invest) on the strategy.

2

Enter the amount of capital to allocate to this strategy.

3

Confirm deployment. Quantly will execute the strategy at the next trading time (if that time has already passed today, it will wait until the next trading period).

Trades run in whichever connected account is selected: a paper account for simulated trading, or a live account for real orders when your broker supports it.

Review on Dashboard

Section titled “Review on Dashboard”

Open the Dashboard to see:

  • Portfolio equity and today’s change
  • Strategy cards with status and performance
  • Holdings and Trade Log tabs

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”