Run a strategy under a mandate

A strategy is an agent that runs a portfolio under a mandate you write. At each run it reads data as of that date, decides, records why, and sets when to wake next: on a date, on a move in a held name, or when a drawdown limit is hit. A paper portfolio can trade on its own. A live portfolio waits for you to approve each list of trades. What you’ll get: a paper portfolio run by an agent, with each decision’s target weights, reasoning and stated confidence, and the trades that followed.

Before you start

An Itoflow account.
For a live portfolio, a connected broker. Start on paper first.

Quick start

Ask your AI assistant
In the Itoflow app
With the API

With Itoflow connected to your assistant, paste this into your assistant:

Use Itoflow to draft a paper strategy with $100,000 that holds 10 to 20 large
US companies with high returns on capital and low debt. Mandate: review the
portfolio monthly, keep each position between 2% and 10% of the portfolio,
and halve the stock exposure if the portfolio falls 15% from its peak. Show
me the full strategy, including the limits Itoflow fills in, before you create
it, and create it paused. When I agree, turn it on, run it once now, wait for
the run to finish, and show me the decision, its reasoning and the trades.

Open in Claude

Start this in Claude with the Itoflow plugin.

Open in ChatGPT

Start this in ChatGPT with the Itoflow plugin.

Using another client? Copy the prompt with the button on the code block.

You need an access token in ITOFLOW_ACCESS_TOKEN.

Create the strategy, paused

curl --fail-with-body --silent --show-error \
  'https://api.itoflow.ai/strategies' \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $ITOFLOW_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
    "name": "US quality",
    "strategyContent": "Hold 10 to 20 large US companies with high returns on capital and low debt. Review the portfolio monthly. Halve the stock exposure if the portfolio falls 15% from its peak.",
    "constraints": { "min_position_pct": 0.02, "max_position_pct": 0.10, "max_positions": 20 },
    "allocationGuidance": { "markets": ["US"], "asset_classes": ["stocks"] },
    "initialCapital": "100000",
    "currency": "USD",
    "activateImmediately": false
  }'

allocationGuidance says what the strategy may invest in. It needs at least one market, asset class, sector or symbol, or creation returns 400 VALIDATION_ERROR; to name the stocks yourself, send universe instead. The 201 response holds the strategy’s id and portfolioId. Check effectiveConstraints and effectiveRules: they include the defaults Itoflow filled in.

Turn it on

POST /strategies/STRATEGY_ID/control with {"action": "resume"}, where STRATEGY_ID is the strategy’s id. From now on the strategy wakes on its own.

Run it once now

curl --fail-with-body --silent --show-error \
  'https://api.itoflow.ai/strategies/STRATEGY_ID/execute' \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $ITOFLOW_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{"execution_type": "manual_rebalance"}'

The 202 response means the run is queued, nothing more. GET /strategies/STRATEGY_ID/active-execution shows it while it runs. Each request queues a new run, so if you lose the response, check active-execution before you send it again.

Read the decision and trades

When the run ends:

GET /paper-trading/STRATEGY_ID/decisions lists each decision with its target weights, reasoning and confidence.
GET /paper-trading/STRATEGY_ID/trades lists the trades that filled. A decision that wasn’t filled doesn’t appear there.
GET /paper-trading/STRATEGY_ID/status shows the portfolio’s holdings and weights.

Change the mandate

PUT /strategies/STRATEGY_ID with the new fields and a changeDescription. Each change makes a new version. Pause the strategy first, and note that a new version cancels its pending trades.

To run a live portfolio, create the strategy with POST /strategies/live and the live portfolio’s portfolioId, then approve each list of trades. See Approve trades.

How it’s checked

Each run sees only its own date. The agent works as of the run’s date and reads only data that existed then.
Each decision keeps its record: its weights, its reasoning and its own stated confidence, so you can see why the portfolio holds what it holds.
Limits sit in code. Position limits and cash checks are enforced outside the agent; a run’s buys need cash above 110% of their value.
A person approves every live trade. Each approval covers one exact list of trades, named by its ID and a hash of its contents.

Limits

Paper portfolios can trade automatically. Live trades always wait for approval, and Trading 212 is the one live broker today.
Long-short books, such as a 130/30, run on paper only. Margin and financing are out of scope.
Editing a mandate cancels pending trades, including approved live trades not yet sent. You can’t edit a running strategy, except to change its model; pause it first.
A portfolio a fund-oversight monitor watches can’t also have a strategy.

Next steps

Build and stress-test a strategy idea before you run it.
Strategies: every endpoint and field.
The agent harness: how strategies wake, decide and keep notes between runs.

Get started

Platform

Use cases

Features

HTTP API

Troubleshooting

Endpoints