Instruments
Instruments are the contract specifications behind your strategies — what one point of price movement is worth, what a trade costs, and how much margin a position requires. AlgoChef uses these numbers everywhere: P&L conversion during import, commission and slippage modeling, and margin-aware capital calculations in Monte Carlo Capital Sizing and Portfolio Studio.
Where to find it: In the app sidebar under Strategy Analyzer, open Instruments.
What Each Field Means
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Symbol / Exchange Symbol | The name you use vs the official exchange ticker (e.g. ES for the E-mini S&P 500) |
| Big Point Value ($) | Dollar value of a one-point price move for one contract. ES = $50: a 10-point move on one contract is $500 |
| Ticks Per Point | How many minimum increments make up one point (ES = 4 ticks of 0.25) |
| Tick Value ($) | Dollar value of one tick (ES = $12.50) |
| Commission ($) | Round-turn commission per contract, used when your import is set to apply costs from the database |
| Slippage (ticks) | Expected execution slippage in ticks — multiplied by Tick Value to get a dollar cost per trade |
| Overnight Margin Requirement ($) | Capital the broker requires to hold one contract overnight |
| Intraday Margin Requirement | Margin required for day trading (often far lower than overnight) |
Managing the Catalog
- Seed default instruments — one click loads a catalog of common futures contracts with sensible specs, so you rarely need to start from scratch.
- Add / Edit / Delete — maintain your own entries. Big Point Value is the one required numeric field, because without it point-based P&L can't be converted to dollars.
- Search & column picker — the table works like every other AlgoChef table: search, sort by any column, and show or hide columns.
- Import / Export — move instrument definitions in and out as files, useful for backing up custom specs or sharing them between accounts.
Why This Matters for Your Results
Warning
Wrong instrument specs silently distort every downstream number. If your Big Point Value is off by a factor of two, your net profit, drawdowns, and all five scores are too. When results look implausible after an import, check the instrument first.
Two places instrument data directly changes results:
- Import — when the import wizard's Slippage & Commission setting is From database, the costs applied to each trade come from this catalog.
- Margin-aware capital math — Capital Sizing recommendations are floored by margin requirements (the minimum capital suggestion is always at least 110% of margin).
Common Questions
Do I need to set up instruments before importing? For futures, yes — the import wizard asks you to pick the instrument so it can convert points to dollars. Seeding the defaults first makes this a one-click choice.
My symbol isn't in the defaults. Add it manually with Add Instrument — you only need the contract specs from your broker or the exchange's website.
Stocks and ETFs too? Stock/ETF strategies use the share price directly, so per-point conversion isn't needed the way it is for futures — you just supply the ticker during import.