Podcast ·
Building a playing XI: why one strategy is never enough
On Vishal Mehta’s podcast, Akshay Patni explains why we think about strategies the way a captain thinks about a team: different roles, different conditions, one plan.
A cricket captain never walks out with eleven opening batters. Some players are built for a green pitch, some for a turning one, and the team works because their strengths do not all depend on the same conditions.
We think about trading strategies the same way. In a conversation on Vishal Mehta’s podcast, Akshay Patni talks about why Patni Capital Algo runs several independent, rule-based strategies instead of relying on a single idea.
One idea, one point of failure
Every strategy is written for a particular kind of market. When conditions change, a strategy that looked steady can go through a long difficult stretch. If it is the only one you run, there is nothing else to lean on.
Different roles, written as rules
Each strategy in the line-up has a defined job: when it trades, what it trades, and when it steps away. Entries, exits and stop losses are decided in code before the market opens, so no one is improvising in the middle of a session.
Selection is a process, not a feeling
Like picking a team, adding a strategy is a deliberate decision. Ideas are tested across years of market data, most are dropped, and the ones that remain are reviewed regularly against how they actually behave.
None of this removes risk. Trading in derivatives can lose money, and diversification does not prevent losses. It is simply a way of making sure no single idea carries the whole book.