Quick Start: Paper Trading

A ten-minute playbook for standing up your first paper copy-trade pod, reading the signal, and tuning the filter until it behaves the way you expect on paper. No capital at risk: paper trading is fully simulated.

The loop is: filter → live estimate → paper pod → trade flow check → analytics → whitelist/blacklist → repeat.

Step 1: Build a starter filter

This walkthrough uses a Cohort Filter as the starting shape (criteria-based population). For other starting shapes (Whitelist, Hybrid, or Asset Specialist), see Filter Setups first; the rest of this loop applies to any of them.

Go to the Filters tab on the Hyperliquid dashboard and click +.

Name it something like Starter paper v1, then set these sensible defaults under Trader Criteria:

Under Trade Criteria, set:

Leave Asset Criteria empty for the first pass. You’ll narrow by coin later using analytics and the Asset Specialist setup.

A note on “Closed Positions”: the Filter Builder now offers a Closed Positions criterion too — set a min/max under Trader Criteria (e.g. a min number of closed positions) to gate directly on track-record depth, alongside Total Trades.

Step 2: Read the live estimate

The Filter Builder has no “Estimate coverage” button — instead, as you set criteria a live estimate banner sits at the bottom of the builder and refreshes automatically ~half a second after every criteria change. It reports the number of active traders (traded within a backend-defined window, shown right in the banner) and assets that currently match:

1,234 active traders   89 assets   matches traders active in the last 24h

This tells you how much of Hyperliquid’s universe currently matches. Target ranges for a starter filter:

The banner re-estimates on its own whenever you change a criterion — there is nothing to click. Tune the knobs until the numbers feel right, then click Create Filter.

Step 3: Attach a Paper Copy Trade pod

Go to the Pods tab and click +.

1. Pick Paper Trade as the pod type
2. Select the filter you just saved (locked after creation, use a new pod to change)
3. Use the default capital settings to start:
   • Starting Capital: $10,000
   • Position Size: 5% (so each new trade is ~$500 of notional)
   • Max Position: 20% (single position can’t grow past $2,000)
4. Keep the default exit behavior (Follow sells ON, Stop-loss 10%, Take-profit 50%)
5. Click Create

Pods are always created enabled and start listening immediately — there is no “Active on creation” toggle on the form. New matching trades fire paper buys and sells in real time.

Step 4: Check trade flow

Give it 24 to 48 hours, then open the pod detail page and look at Trade Activity.

The goal is signal density that’s actually tradeable:

If you widen or narrow, edit the filter directly. All pods on that filter pick up the new criteria immediately, no need to create a new pod.

Step 5: Read the Analytics tab

Once you have roughly 50 to 100 closed positions (typically 1 to 2 weeks for a healthy filter), open the Analytics tab on your paper pod. It shows a set of breakdown tables — exactly five dimensions — each sliced by where the PnL came from:

Every table shows Bucket / Trades / PnL / Avg Return and is pre-sorted by absolute PnL (largest first) — you read the extremes directly; there is no interactive column sorting. A Processed timestamp above the tables tells you when the analytics last ran, and the tables populate as positions close.

The pod’s headline numbers (Total PnL, Total Return, Win Rate, Positions, and an equity curve) live on the pod detail page’s Performance section, not on the Analytics tab itself.

Step 6: Use breakdowns to find your edge

Read the five breakdowns to answer specific questions:

Each table is already sorted by absolute PnL, so the large-magnitude rows — the big winners and the big losers — sit near the top; the rows at the bottom are the smallest-magnitude (near-zero) buckets. To read it:

• Top of PnL with a large positive PnL → that trader / coin / bucket is your real edge. Promote them.
• Top of PnL with a large negative PnL (high Trades count) → that trader / coin / bucket is bleeding you. Cut them.
• Bottom rows (near-zero PnL) → noise, ignore for now.
• Small Trades count, either direction → noise, ignore for now.

Step 7: Tighten with whitelists and blacklists

Open the filter in the builder and use the + component buttons to add whitelists or blacklists:

• Trader Blacklist: add the bottom-PnL traders from the By Trader breakdown. They never match again no matter what other criteria say.
• Trader Whitelist: to go concentrated, add the top-PnL traders and remove the Trader Criteria component. Only those addresses can match now.
• Coin Blacklist: add specific coins (BTC, some low-cap alt, etc.) that consistently lose money in the By Coin breakdown. Blacklisted coins never match.
• Asset Criteria → Coins (include): to go concentrated on a few coins instead, restrict matches to a handpicked list of coins.

Blacklists are purely exclusionary: they can only exclude traders or coins from a filter that already has a positive side (criteria or whitelist). A blacklist on its own is not a valid filter, and you can’t create a filter from scratch inside the blacklist dialog — create the filter first, then blacklist within it.

Other knobs to retune from what the breakdown showed you:

• If By Trade Size says bigger copies win, raise Trade Size min in Trade Criteria
• If By Coin says deep assets win, add Volume min in Asset Criteria
• If a funding-carry tilt is working, constrain the Funding Rate range in Asset Criteria. This field is entered as annualized APR — e.g. a max positive APR for long-side strategies. (The Explore tab’s funding criterion matches the raw hourly decimal; don’t mix them up.)

Save the filter. The live pod picks up the new criteria on the next matching trade.

Step 8: Rinse and repeat

Give each filter change another 50 to 100 closed positions before judging. Changing too frequently turns the feedback loop into noise: you can’t tell whether the last edit helped or hurt.

A typical rhythm:

1. Week 1: starter filter, 50 to 100 trades, first read
2. Week 2: one or two tightenings based on analytics
3. Week 3: validate the tighter filter, maybe split into two filters for different coins or regimes
4. Week 4+: if Sharpe holds > 1.5 and Max DD stays under 15% on paper, you have a filter worth trusting. Keep iterating, or split it into specialist variants.

Common mistakes

• Changing the filter every day. You’re not measuring the filter, you’re measuring noise. Hold each version for ~100 closed trades.
• Chasing raw PnL without checking Max Drawdown. A filter can print 30% then vaporize. Always look at both.
• Starting too tight. Zero trades for a week teaches you nothing. Better to start loose, see the full distribution, then cut.
• Ignoring the breakdowns. The headline performance tells you if it’s working. The breakdowns tell you why, which is how you improve.
• Trusting a single trader. Even great traders have streaks. Three or more traders carrying most of the PnL is a lot safer than one.
• Forgetting leverage. Paper pods apply leverage. A 10% stop-loss on a 5x position is a much larger fraction of your capital than it sounds — account for it when sizing.