Quick Start Guide
Get your first algorithmic trading strategy running in under 5 minutes.
# Quick Start Guide
Get your first algorithmic trading strategy running in under 5 minutes. Choose the path that fits your style.
## Path A: Copy a Strategy from the Library
The fastest way to get started. The [Strategy Library](/library) contains pre-built, backtested strategies you can deploy immediately.
1. Navigate to **Library** in the top navigation bar.
2. Browse strategies by category (Long Term, Active Trading, Leveraged, etc.) or search for a specific asset.
3. Click on a strategy card to see its backtest performance, including Sharpe ratio, max drawdown, and total return.
4. Click **"Save to Portfolio"** to add it to your account.
5. From your portfolio dashboard, click **"Launch to Market"** to begin paper trading.
> **Tip:** Paper trading simulates real market conditions without risking real money. It's the perfect way to validate a strategy before going live.
## Path B: Let Aurora Build Your Strategy
Aurora is NexusTrade's autonomous AI agent — the world's only publicly-available AI that can autonomously research, create, backtest, optimize, and deploy algorithmic trading strategies. You can use Aurora in two ways:
### Quick: Chat Mode
Navigate to **Aurora > Chat** in the top navigation bar. Describe what you want in plain English:
1. Type your trading idea. For example:
- `"Create a portfolio that buys $500 of SPY every two weeks"`
- `"Build an SMA crossover strategy for NVIDIA using 50-day and 200-day moving averages"`
2. Aurora will generate the portfolio with strategies, conditions, and indicators. Click **"View Portfolio"** to review.
3. Tell Aurora to **"backtest this portfolio from January 2020 to today"** and review the results.
4. Save the portfolio and deploy it for paper trading.
### Powerful: Agent Mode
Navigate to **Aurora > Agent** for complex, multi-step tasks. In Agent Mode, Aurora works **fully autonomously** — she plans a sequence of actions, executes them, observes the results, and adjusts her approach using the ReAct framework.
1. Describe a complex goal. For example:
- `"Create a strategy that rebalances between UPRO and GLD. Figure out the best allocation split and rebalancing frequency."`
- `"Find the best dividend stocks, build a diversified portfolio, and compare it against SPY"`
2. Aurora will create a plan, then autonomously execute it — creating portfolios, running backtests, comparing results, and even spawning parallel subagents to explore different approaches simultaneously.
3. Review the final results and deploy the best strategy.
> **Tip:** Aurora understands natural language. You can ask follow-up questions like "What if we use a 100-day SMA instead?" and Aurora will adjust the strategy accordingly. For a full guide on Aurora's capabilities, see [Aurora AI Agent](/docs/features/aurora-ai).
## Path C: Build Your Own Strategy Manually
For maximum control, build a strategy from scratch using the no-code UI.
1. Navigate to **Portfolios** and click **"Create Portfolio"**.
2. Give your portfolio a name and set an initial cash amount (e.g., $25,000 for equities; use much larger starting capital for options—see [Options trading](/docs/features/options-trading)).
3. Click **"Add Strategy"** and configure:
- **Action:** Buy, Sell, Alert, Rebalance, Launch Agent, OpenOption, or CloseOption
- **Asset and amount:** What to trade and how much
- **Conditions:** When to execute (e.g., "RSI of AAPL is below 30")
4. Run a **backtest** to evaluate performance over historical data.
5. Optionally, use the **Optimizer** to fine-tune parameters with genetic algorithms.
6. Click **"Launch to Market"** to deploy.
For a deeper understanding of how strategies, conditions, and indicators work together, see [Core Concepts](/docs/core-concepts/portfolios).
## What's Next?
Once you have a paper-trading portfolio running, here are your next steps:
- **Learn the building blocks:** Read [Core Concepts](/docs/core-concepts/portfolios) to understand portfolios, strategies, conditions, and indicators.
- **Take the course:** The free [Algorithmic Trading Fundamentals](/learn) course walks you through everything with video lessons and hands-on activities.
- **Connect a brokerage:** When you're ready to trade with real money, connect [TradeStation, Public, Alpaca, or Tradier](/docs/features/live-trading).
- **Join the community:** Connect with other traders on [Discord](https://nexustrade.io/discord).