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How to talk to HorizonAI

When you chat, be specific. When you don't need to chat, run a hunt.

The default path is Quant Mode: click Run an alpha hunt and we pick the idea, build it, test it and grade it. You don't write a prompt for that. This page is for the times you do talk to HorizonAI — steering a hunt, iterating on a prospect, or building by hand in the Horizon platform.

Leave the platform pill on Horizon unless you have a reason not to. That's the mode with a live chart, instant backtests and stress testing. Export to Pine Script, MQL5 or NinjaScript at the end.

Be clear and give context

  • Say exactly what you want; repetition for clarity is fine.
    • Example: "Add a 1.5 ATR stop loss to this EMA crossover."
  • More detail beats too little. Name the market, timeframe, and risk if you care about them.
    • Example: "Gold, 1-hour chart, 1% risk per trade, exit on the opposite cross."
  • Expand acronyms on first use.
    • Examples: "FVG → Fair Value Gap", "EMA → Exponential Moving Average".

Collaborate and plan first

  • It's okay to brainstorm before building.
    • Example: "Before coding, outline an approach to mean reversion entries."
  • Ask how the current strategy works before changing it.
    • Example: "How are pivot points computed in this script?"
  • Check whether a feature already exists before asking to add it.
    • Example: "Do we already have a take profit? If so, where is it set?"
  • Keep one topic per thread and correct misunderstandings directly.
    • Example: "New thread: change the stop to ATR-based. Leave the indicator work in the other chat."

Example prompts

Starting a hunt (you often don't need these):

  • Leave the builder blank and we pick everything.
  • "Order blocks on the London session" in the hunt's base idea
  • "Mean reversion after a liquidity sweep, forex, 15m–4h"

See Alpha Hunts for the recipe fields. Typing @ or + My Scripts attaches your own Horizon code so the hunt uses it instead of inventing a definition.

For the Horizon platform (charting, backtesting, testing):

  • "Go long when the 20 EMA crosses above the 50, 2% stop, 3% target"
  • "Plot a 20 and 50 EMA over the candles and shade the gap between them"
  • "Put RSI in a lower pane with the 30 and 70 levels marked"
  • "Backtest this and tell me the profit factor"
  • "Backtest this across markets again"
  • "Stress-test this properly: is the edge real or have I fit noise?"
  • "Tighten the stop to 1.5 ATR and add a trend filter"

For beginners, by hand:

  • "Create a simple moving average crossover strategy for Bitcoin on the 1-hour chart"
  • "Build a Bollinger Bands mean reversion strategy with 2% stop loss"
  • "Add RSI confirmation to this EMA crossover"

For intermediate traders:

  • "Create a trend-following strategy using 50/200 EMA with ATR-based trailing stops"
  • "Build a Smart Money Concepts strategy that trades liquidity sweeps with order block entries"
  • "Turn this into a strategy with entries and exits" (if you accidentally built an indicator)

For advanced traders:

  • "Build a multi-timeframe strategy: 4H trend filter, 15m entries at FVG fills in discount, 1% risk per trade with 2.5:1 RR"
  • "Create a portfolio of 3 mean reversion strategies with correlation filters and shared daily loss limits"
  • "This failed the cost-sensitivity stress check — make it survive 2× commission"

Exporting and converting (after the strategy has earned it):

  • Click Export in the chat header rather than asking the model to rewrite by hand. See Exporting from Horizon.
  • Already have Pine, MQL5 or NinjaScript? Use the Converter, or: "Convert this Pine Script into MetaTrader 5 (MQL5)."

Strategy resources

Need strategy ideas? Explore these guides: