> 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/products/asset-profiler/from-profile-to-setfile.md).

# From Profile to Setfile

What the profile actually changes in your Hydra Vision configuration, and what it deliberately leaves alone.

{% hint style="warning" %}
**The common misreading.** That the Profiler produces a setfile. It doesn't, and it isn't meant to. It informs a small number of decisions well, and stays out of the rest.
{% endhint %}

### What the profile informs

#### Minimum Step Size — the main one

The practical step range is the span of values this setting can take on this asset. The report shows it already converted, on the line **as Minimum Step Size** under the range, in the unit Hydra Vision reads the setting in: pips on FX, cents on gold and other commodities, whole points on indices.

Every value **inside** the range is supported by the asset's history. The tighter end fills more readily; the wider end costs proportionally less. Where in the range a strategy sits is not something the profile can see.

On a profile made before Asset Profiler v1.23 the value is marked *(estimated)*, or the line asks for a re-run. See [Ticks, pips and price](/products/asset-profiler/ticks-pips-and-price.md).

#### Bias Selection — why it matters

Not because of the measured direction, but because only one side of a grid can hold at a time. With **Bias Selection** left at *No Bias - Buy or Sell*, whichever side opens first takes the clock. [Directional Bias](/products/asset-profiler/directional-bias.md) explains the argument properly.

Where carry is one-sided, the carry-free side is also worth weighing, since the entire carry section of the report assumes you're on the paying side.

#### `Maximum Step (Inc/Dec)` — only on incrementing grids

Worth knowing what this does and doesn't apply to. On incrementing grids it caps how wide the step can get. On dynamic grids the maximum is unbounded above the minimum, so the setting doesn't constrain anything.

Missing steps in a fast move isn't a failure, incidentally. It's countered by a correctly sized position at the right price rather than by more positions.

#### Your trading hours

Not a setfile field, but a real decision the report informs. If the session panel says **material**, restricting your trading hours will do more for your costs than any parameter change.

### What the profile does not inform

**Volume, lot sizing, or risk per position.** The Profiler says nothing about these, by design, and neither does this documentation.

**Your PCL strategy.** The report models the simplest possible close. Which PCL strategy you run, and how you configure it, is yours.

**Re-entry conditions.** SmartEntry settings are too specific to your intent to model from asset data. Test runs are the right way to find them.

**Stop losses and Position Hunter.** Deliberately out of scope. Those are consequences of your strategy, not properties of the asset.

### A working order

1. **Read the verdict.** If it's *Not viable at these costs*, stop. No setting fixes that.
2. **Read the step range** on the **as Minimum Step Size** line, which is already in the setting's unit.
3. **Bias Selection.** Which side runs is decided either by this setting or by whichever grid opens first.
4. **Check the session panel.** If material, decide your trading hours now, before testing, so your back tests reflect how you'll actually trade.
5. **Note the p80 retrace wait** — it tells you roughly how long a single close takes, which sets your expectations for how long a back test needs to run to be meaningful.
6. **Back test, and move within the range.** The Profiler put you in the right neighbourhood; testing finds your address.

### What to do with this

* Treat the step range as the starting point for testing, not the end of it.
* Bias Selection and trading hours both shape what a back test measures, so a test reflects whatever they were set to at the time.
* Everything about volume and strategy stays where it was, with you.