Friday Lab Notes: Build Alpha V3 Update + My Intraday Incubations Built with BA

Friday Notes by TraderDunn

Build Alpha V3: What We Know So Far

For the first time in a while, Build Alpha’s creator (Dave Bergstrom) posted a new video and hinted that Build Alpha V3 is (finally…maybe) on the way. If you’ve used BA, you know why this matters: it’s already powerful, but updates have been VERY slow. If V3 delivers what’s being teased, it could make the strategy-building workflow a lot smoother.

Why This Matters: Filtering BA Trades is the Bottleneck

Build Alpha can generate plenty of “working” strategies. The hard part is filtering, qualifying, and organizing what’s actually tradable. What caught my attention is the focus on automated workflows and more “live” filtering—basically a cleaner way to go from tons of candidates to a shortlist worth tracking.

The BA V3 Video (If You Want To Watch)

Here’s the video if you want to see what’s being teased:

My Build Alpha Process (The Repeatable Pipeline)

The edge isn’t creating more strategies…it’s building a process you can repeat every week. My goal is to consistently move strategies through a pipeline: generate → filter → incubate → qualify → portfolio. That keeps things organized and prevents from holding bad systems in the portfolio.

Incubation Rules

I promote strategies to an incubation list only after they show successful OOS performance (not live yet). From there, I incubate for 6 months or at minimum 20 trades before they’re eligible for portfolio consideration. This prevents me from falling in love with something that’s just noise.

Portfolio Rules (PnL/DD + Diversification)

At the portfolio level, I’m selecting combinations based on PnL / Drawdown plus diversification across markets and behaviors. I plan to refresh quarterly as new systems qualify. Over time, this creates a rolling pipeline of “candidates”.

Teaser: BA-Made Strategies I’m Tracking

I’m already building and tracking a batch of BA-made strategies that meet my filters—many of these have been incubating for over a year and are now crossing the 20-trade threshold. I’m not posting full rules/code in this post, but I am sharing a snapshot of what I’m watching. Most of these are intraday systems on 600 / 480 / 360-minute charts trading YM, ES, and NQ, and many hold 1–2 days.

Current Incubation Snapshot

Below is a screenshot of the incubating strategies I’m tracking—long and short—sorted by number of trades. The green highlights are the ones I like most right now, but I’ll still consider anything that clears the 20-trade threshold. We will share some of these on the monthly strategies going forward as they some out of incubation

Below is ES.600.L8 one of the best that passed incubation.

What I’ll Share Going Forward (Friday Lab Notes)

Going forward, I’ll post a Friday “Lab Note” update…which systems are earning a spot in the live portfolio. These will be quick, visual updates with a screenshot and a few bullets. The goal is to keep it transparent and repeatable.

What Should I Run Next?

If you want me to run a Build Alpha batch on a specific market/timeframe (ES, NQ, YM, RTY, etc.), comment below and I’ll add it to the next run.

Thanks for Reading

Thanks for following along with these Friday Lab Notes.
— TraderDunn