# Overview

Strategies are the heart of Tradecraft. Automated trading programs that make buy and sell decisions on your behalf. Think of a strategy as your personal trading algorithm that watches the market 24/7, analyzes price movements, and executes trades based on rules you define.

### What is a Strategy?

A strategy in Tradecraft is a set of instructions that tells the platform when to buy tokens, when to sell them, and how much to trade. Whether you're a complete beginner or an experienced developer, Tradecraft provides the tools to create, test, and deploy automated trading strategies on the Solana blockchain.

<figure><img src="https://3175477167-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FYCh2t4HDhRRiAIqY93vK%2Fuploads%2Fr8M4WmVVmiXPLbwBYvEr%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=ca415fc6-b80c-4f62-9046-e30489b34c36" alt="" width="563"><figcaption><p>Trading strategy that buys on a dip and sells in several steps.</p></figcaption></figure>

#### How Strategies Work

A strategy considers tokens that comes from one or several signal sources that you connect to the strategy. A signal source can be messaging apps like Telegram or Discord, or a webhook API that is connected to the platform. There is also a marketplace where you subscribe to signals from others.

As a token signal arrives into a strategy, it transitions between two states:

1. **Monitoring Phase**: Your strategy watches tokens from your selected signal sources, waiting for the right moment to buy based on your criteria (price patterns, signals, or custom logic).
2. **Position Management Phase**: Once a trade is executed and you hold a position, the strategy monitors that token continuously, deciding when to take profits, cut losses, or hold for bigger gains.

* Strategies run continuously, processing fresh market data in real time and triggers trades as per your defined criteria. No manual intervention required.

#### Types of Strategies

Tradecraft offers multiple ways to create strategies, each designed for different skill levels:

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* **Easy Mode** provides a visual, no-code builder perfect for beginners. You configure your strategy using simple dropdowns to set buy conditions, profit targets, and stop losses. Behind the scenes, Tradecraft translates your configuration into executable code.
* **Advanced Mode** gives experienced developers full control with JavaScript programming. Write custom logic, implement complex indicators, and access detailed price history to create sophisticated trading algorithms.

#### The Strategy Lifecycle

Every strategy goes through a structured lifecycle:

1. **Creation**: Build your strategy using Easy Mode's visual builder or Advanced Mode's code editor. Define your entry conditions, profit targets, and risk management rules.
2. **Testing**: Before risking real money, backtest your strategy against historical data. Run simulations to see how your strategy would have performed, identify weaknesses, and refine your approach.
3. **Configuration**: Set your trading parameters—how much to trade, priority fees for faster execution, slippage tolerance, and MEV protection settings.
4. **Activation**: Connect your wallet(s), assign data sources, and enable live trading. Your strategy begins monitoring the market immediately.

#### What You'll Learn Next

In the following sections, we'll dive deeper into each strategy type:

* **Easy Mode**: Build strategies visually without writing code
* **Advanced Mode**: Learn to write custom trading logic with full programming control
* **AI Assistant**: How to use the interactive AI to help you generate trading strategies.
