PA Builder [PrimeAutomation]

1. PA Builder – Overview

PA Builder is not a fixed strategy; it’s a framework for building strategies. Instead of giving traders one rigid system, it provides a toolbox where entries, exits, filters, risk parameters, and automation rules can all be defined and combined. The core philosophy is confluence: the idea that a trade should only be taken when multiple independent signals agree. The Builder is built around this principle. Every module; trend, reactors, bands, reversals, volume, structure, divergences, externals can be treated as one layer of confidence. The stronger the alignment across layers, the higher the quality of the setup in theory.

In practice, this means PA Builder encourages traders to think in terms of “confluence,” not single indicators. Trend and positioning define whether you should even be looking for longs or shorts. Timing tools such as bands, reversals and candlestick structures determine when inside that broader bias you want to engage. Confirmation tools like volume and flow tell you whether capital is actually supporting the move. Filter systems then ensure that even if everything looks good locally, you still respect higher-timeframe or opposing warnings. The Builder’s philosophy is simple: enter less often, but only when conditions are genuinely in your favour.

2. Core Entry Signal Components
The entry logic in PA Builder is built on a set of signal engines that can be combined in many ways. Trend Signals form a natural foundation. They use low-lag low-pass filters, borrowed from audio signal processing, to extract directional bias from price without the classic delay of classical moving averages. The sensitivity parameter controls how reactive this engine is: lower values favour cleaner trends and fewer whipsaws, while higher values are better suited to short-term intraday trading where speed matters more than smoothness. Many traders start by requiring that Trend Signals show “all bullish” or “all bearish” before allowing any entries in that direction.




Trend signals firing short positions
On top of this directional backbone, the Dynamic Reactor behaves as an adaptive baseline. It accelerates in volatile phases and slows down during consolidation, effectively acting as a moving reference point for both trend and price position. A typical use of this module is to insist that, for long trades, the price sits above a bullish reactor; for shorts, below a bearish one. At the higher-timeframe level, the Quantum Reactor provides a VWAP-style reference that can be anchored to larger candles than the chart you are trading. A common configuration is to trade on a 15-minute chart while requiring that price is above the 4-hour Quantum Reactor for longs or below it for shorts. The “fast” and “slow” options determine how quickly this reference adapts to new information.


Timing is then refined with tools like Quantum Bands, reversals and candle structure analysis. Quantum Bands identify extremes within the current environment. In an uptrend, a tag of the lower band can be treated as a pullback rather than a breakdown; in a downtrend, the upper band acts like a shorting zone. Many traders combine “trend up and above higher-timeframe reactor” with “price temporarily below lower band” to construct a mean-reversion entry inside a larger uptrend. Reversal detection modules examine recent bars to find turning points, with shorter lookbacks capturing fast flips and longer lookbacks tracking deeper structural changes. Candle structure logic goes beyond classical candlestick names and instead focuses on whether price action confirms follow-through or reversion behaviour, with options like “2X” modes that wait for two successive confirmations before acting.




Before and after filtering using reactor applied.


Additional confirmation layers come from Volume Matrix, Money Flow, OSC True7 and divergence detection. Volume and flow tools answer whether actual capital is participating in the move or whether price is drifting on thin activity. OSC True7 categorises the state of the trend into intuitive buckets, strong, healthy, neutral, or exhausted, making it easier to avoid chasing extremes. Divergences between price and momentum can be used either as entry triggers in contrarian systems or as hard filters that block trades when warning signs are present. Finally, two external indicator inputs make it possible to integrate RSI, MACD, custom indicators or even other strategies into the Builder, either as simple thresholds or as comparative logic between two external sources (for example, requiring a fast EMA to be above a slow EMA before allowing longs).

3. Exit System & Trade Management
The exit systems in PA Builder are designed to be as vital as the entry logic. It assumes exits are not an afterthought, but half of the edge. Instead of forcing a single take profit point, the system uses a three-tier structure where you can assign different portions of the position to different targets. A common pattern is to scale out a small portion early (for example at one ATR), another portion at an intermediate level, and keep the largest slice for a deeper move. This creates a natural balance: you book something early to reduce emotional stress, while leaving room to participate in the full potential of a trend.
Targets can be defined using ATR multiples or risk-to-reward ratios that are directly tied to the initial stop distance. Using ATR keeps exits proportional to current volatility. A two ATR target in a quiet environment is very different in absolute price distance from the same multiple in a high-volatility environment, yet conceptually it represents the same “size” move. Risk-to-reward exits build on this by ensuring that if you risk one unit (1R), the reward targets are set at predefined multiples of that risk. This enforces positive expectancy at the structural level: the strategy cannot generate entries with inherently negative payoffs.




Once price begins to move in your favour, trailing logic takes over if you choose to enable it. Trailing can begin immediately from entry or only after a target has been hit. Many users prefer to let TP1 and TP2 behave as fixed profit points and then apply a trailing stop or trailing take profit to the final remainder. That way, routine winners are banked mechanically, while occasional explosive moves can be ridden for as long as the market allows. The breakeven module supports this behaviour by automatically moving stops to entry (or slightly through entry into profit) after a specified condition such as TP1 being hit. This transforms the risk profile mid trade: once breakeven has been secured, remaining size can be managed with much less psychological pressure.

The system also recognises the cost of time. Kill Switch functionality exits trades that have been open too long under mediocre conditions, typically when they are in modest profit but not progressing. This protects you from capital being tied up while better opportunities appear elsewhere. Underlying all of this are several trailing stop mechanisms: percentage-based, tick-based for very short-term strategies, TP linked trailing that activates only once a certain profit threshold has been achieved, and ATR based trailing that automatically scales the trail distance with volatility. Each method serves a slightly different profile of strategy, but all share the same aim: preserve gains and limit downside in a structured way rather than rely on discretionary judgement after the fact.

4. Filters and Risk Management
The filter systems in PA Builder formalise the idea that good trading is often about knowing when not to act. “Do Not Trade” conditions can be configured so that even a perfectly aligned bullish entry stack is overridden if certain bearish evidence is present. These can include higher timeframe reversal structures, powerful opposing divergences, or conflicting signals in key modules. By assigning conditions specifically to “Do Not Long” and “Do Not Short” rather than only to entries, you create asymmetry: buying requires bullish evidence and an absence of strong bearish warnings; selling requires the mirror.
Volatility filters extend this logic to the regime level. Some strategies are inherently suited to low volatility, range bound environments where fading extremes is profitable; others require expansion and energy to function properly. By binding trading permission to volatility ranges, you ensure that a mean-reversion system does not blindly attempt to fade a breakout, and that a momentum system does not spin its wheels in a dead, sideways market. You can even reference volatility from a higher timeframe than the one you trade, so that a five-minute strategy is still aware of the broader one-hour volatility regime it sits inside.



Applied DO NOT TRADE - removes poor signal






Risk management and position sizing are configured so each trade is expressed in units of risk rather than arbitrary size. Leverage, in this framework, is simply a scaling factor for capital efficiency; the actual risk per trade is still controlled by the distance between entry and stop and the percentage of equity you choose to expose. Reinvestment options then decide what proportion of accumulated profit is fed back into position sizing. A more aggressive reinvestment setting accelerates compounding but increases the amplitude of drawdowns; a more conservative one smooths the equity curve at the cost of slower growth. The Base Trade Value parameter ties all of this together by deciding how much nominal capital or how many contracts are committed per trade in light of your maximum allowed simultaneous positions and your intended use of leverage.

External exit conditions provide further flexibility. For example, you might design a system whose entries rely purely on PA Builder’s internal modules, but whose exits use RSI readings, moving average crosses, or a proprietary external indicator. The separation of entry and exit logic allows you to bolt on different behaviours at the tail end of trades while keeping your core signal engine intact. In all cases, the objective is the same: express risk in a controlled, repeatable way that can survive long stretches of unfavourable market conditions.

5. PDT, Cooldowns and Visual Modes
For traders subject to Pattern Day Trading rules, PA Builder includes a day-trade tracking system that counts business days correctly and respects the three-trades-in-five-days limit. This goes beyond simple compliance; it forces discipline. When intraday trading is heavily constrained, you are naturally pushed toward swing-oriented strategies with fewer, more selective entries. The tool visually marks your PDT status so you never inadvertently cross the line and trigger a lockout.

Cooldown systems address another reality: psychological vulnerability after streaks. Following several consecutive wins, many traders unconsciously loosen their standards, take marginal signals, oversize positions, or overtrade. A win-streak cooldown deliberately pauses trading after a configured number of wins, giving you time to reset. The same applies to losing streaks. After a run of losses, the strongest temptation is often to “make it back now,” which is exactly when discipline is weakest. A loss-streak cooldown enforces a break in activity during this high-risk emotional state, helping to prevent cascading damage driven by revenge trading.
Visualisation comes in two main modes. Classic mode emphasises precision: it draws explicit entry lines, stop levels, target levels and fill zones, making it easy to audit risk/reward on each trade, verify that the exit logic behaves as intended, and review historical trades in detail. Modern mode emphasises market feel: instead of focusing on exact levels, it colours candles and backgrounds to reflect momentum, profit state and dynamics.

This helps you see at a glance whether a strategy is operating in a smooth trending environment or a choppy, fragmented one, and whether current trades are broadly working or struggling. Many users develop and debug in Classic mode and then monitor live performance in Modern mode, so both representations become part of the workflow.




6. Strategy Design Workflow, Examples and Cautions
Designing with PA Builder is inherently iterative. You begin with a simple theory and a minimal configuration, perhaps just a trend filter and a basic stop/target structure, and run a backtest. You then examine where the system fails. If you see many losses occurring in counter-trend conditions, you add an additional directional filter or restrict entries with a higher-timeframe reactor condition. If you observe many small whipsaw losses, you might require candle structure confirmation or volume confirmation before allowing an entry. Each change is made one at a time and evaluated. This process gradually builds a layered system where every component has a clear purpose: some reduce drawdown, some increase win rate, some cut out only the worst trades, and others help capture more of the best ones.

A conservative swing strategy might need an agreement between short-term trend signals, a higher-timeframe Quantum position, and a bullish Dynamic Reactor state, while checking that volume supports the move and that no significant bearish reversals or divergences are present on higher timeframes. It might accept relatively few trades, but each trade would be tightly controlled, scaled out over several ATR-based targets and protected with breakeven and trailing logic. On the opposite end, an aggressive scalping configuration would relax some filters, favour faster sensitivities, use short lookback reversals, and tighten stops and targets dramatically, relying on high frequency and careful volatility filtering to maintain edge.

Throughout all of this, overfitting remains the main danger. The more parameters you tune and the more coincidental rules you add to make the backtest equity curve smoother, the more likely it is that you are capturing noise rather than a real, repeatable edge. Signs of overfitting include heavily optimised numeric values with no intuitive justification, large differences between in-sample and out-of-sample results, or strategies that work spectacularly in very specific regimes and collapse elsewhere. To mitigate this, keep strategies as simple as possible, test across different market regimes (bull, bear, range), and accept that robust systems usually look less “perfect” on the historical chart.

Bridging the gap from backtest to live trading is another critical step. Before risking capital, it is wise to paper trade the configuration for a number of trades to confirm that signal frequency, behaviour and execution align with expectations. When going live, starting with minimal size and gradually scaling up based on real-world performance helps manage both financial and psychological risk. If live results diverge significantly from backtest expectations due to slippage, fees, or changing market conditions, you can adjust, reduce size, or temporarily pause rather than commit fully to a failing configuration.

Ultimately, PA Builder is designed to be a tool for building structured, rules-driven trading systems. It gives you the tools to express your ideas, test them, refine them, and run them under controlled risk. It does not remove uncertainty or guarantee results, but it does provide a clear, transparent way to translate trading concepts into executable, testable logic, and to evolve those systems as markets change and your understanding deepens.