How Signals Work

The concepts behind Signals AI - read this once and the rest of the product makes sense.

The signal lifecycle

Draft (Canvas) → Saved → Deployed (Forward Test or Algo Trade)
                              │
                         Listening ⇄ Paused
                              │
                     Entry fires → position open

1. Draft - you build and preview the signals on the Canvas.
2. Saved - the signal lives in Saved Signals; nothing is running.
3. Deployed - an instance of the signal runs in Forward Test or Algo Trade. One saved signal can have multiple instances.

The Listening state

A deployed strategy in Listening is actively monitoring live market data for your entry conditions.

• It stays listening day after day - no daily reactivation needed. (For NSE/BSE brokers you still need to log in to your broker daily; see Algo Trade prerequisites.)
• Pause Listening suspends monitoring; Start Listening resumes it.
• When an entry fires, the strategy manages the position until an exit fires, then resumes watching for the next entry - subject to your signal limits.

When are conditions evaluated?

Conditions are checked once per candle, on the completed candle's values. An "EMA 9 crosses above EMA 26" is confirmed only when the candle closes. Slower to react, but matches better with the backtest results.

Why backtest, forward test, and live results differ

Differences between the three are normal. The main causes:

Cause	Effect
Slippage	Backtests assume a fill price; live market orders fill at the touch - usually slightly worse. Add Slippages in your backtest results to match better with live results.
Order type behavior	Limit orders can go unfilled live; backtests don't model missed fills
Latency	Live signals take real time to reach the exchange
Data differences	Historical and live feeds can differ in ticks near the trigger price

Full write-up: Why live trades differ from forward test and backtest results

tip

Small, consistent differences are expected. Large or systematic divergence (e.g., live always enters a candle later) usually points to a major mismatch - if this happen, you need to debug the strategy.

Signals vs Signals AI (Classic vs AI)

AlgoTest has two signal products - don't mix up their docs:

	Signals (Classic)	Signals AI (these docs)
Strategy logic lives in	TradingView / Chartink / your code	AlgoTest (Canvas)
Needs a TradingView paid plan	Yes (Essential+)	No
Signal delivery	Webhook alerts into AlgoTest	Built-in; no webhooks
Backtesting	Via TradingView	Built into AlgoTest