> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://help.hydravision.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://help.hydravision.ai/concepts/concepts-and-strategies.md).

# Concepts & Strategies

Hydra Vision is like Lego blocks... we provide the pieces and you design and configure comprehensive grid trading strategies

There are many concepts and features in Hydra Vision; however, they don't all work together all the time. The mastery comes with understanding the concepts and principles of the system, and then piecing them together to design a strategy.

From v1 to v5 of Hydra Vision the [PCL engines](/concepts/concepts/pcl.md) were all independent. It started with two engines and eventually grew to 12 engines. Designing and maintaining strategies became increasingly complex, and so with the launch of v6 we overhauled the architecture of PCL, and now we are back to 2 engines, with the Dynamic PCL engine encompassing strategy rules and risk parameters to auto switch to different loss targets.

An important concept of PCL is to be able to turn the execution on/off to allow other features to run when the markets allow (such as stop loss trailing). This was accomplished with a conditional rule set, which is self-configurable in the setfile.

For the most part any volume and grid system combination can run on any PCL Strategy; however, you will learn with experience that some are more optimal than others. The underlying market volatility also plays a critical role in determining these settings.

{% hint style="warning" %}
We urge caution not to try and curve fit strategies during back testing. Sometimes the markets were just extreme, and events like these will happen in the future. Whilst you can find settings to navigate events such as COVID, tariff increases, political interference in Central Banks and so on, our lessons from the trenches are to understand that sometimes we just need to turn off trading and wait for less volatile times.
{% endhint %}

***

## How to approach Strategy building

At first sight it can appear complicated. The terminology is new, the configuration options look daunting and you're just unsure how to approach this.

The journey is a lot of fun.

1. Understand the concepts
2. Learn which functions fit together
3. Build a set of base strategies

From here it's all optimisation tweaks. Our videos go through many different markets and sample setups. We regularly switch our strategies out as market regimes change depending on risk on/off, economic season, general volatility and so on.

{% hint style="info" %}
There is no such concept as one strategy to suit every occasion sustainably and consistently. Sometimes it's profit-taking heydays, and then it becomes defensive. Learn to adapt to the markets and don't fight the shift!
{% endhint %}

Build a few variations of the base strategies for different conditions. For example, you may have a base Hunter strategy for Forex.

Variations you could build off this:

* Multi position Hunter
* High volume Hunter with Injection
* Risk averse with high compaction
* Fixed grid to dynamic

And so on... you could configure dozens of them if you have the time and discipline to do so.

This becomes an important reason why we do not issue 'final' setfiles. There are just too many permutations. We could release a setfile today for EURUSD, which in 3 months goes out of date as the US has hit Europe with high tariffs again, or Europe has an energy crisis, and so on.

{% hint style="success" icon="lightbulb-exclamation-on" %}
Understanding what your defined strategy can do and the market regime it is designed to handle is critical.
{% endhint %}

We feel this is the reason many traders buying out of the box EAs have such a high failure rate. Automated trading has many benefits, but with that comes the responsibility of the configuration that is chosen. It is important every trader understands their configuration, and where the breaking points are. This can save so much pain in the long run. Copying another setfile that you do not completely understand leads to blind faith... a sure way to a problematic situation.