What is the Workbench

The CashFlow Engine Workbench answers one question: which SPX 0DTE strategies — and which combinations of them — actually held up in historical testing? Instead of running your own backtests for weeks, you browse a pre-computed database of over 200,000 backtested strategy variants and spend your time on the decisions that matter: what to combine, how much of it, and whether the result survives stress.

It is analytics and educational software. It issues no buy or sell recommendations, never touches your money, and nothing in it is financial advice. You bring the judgment; the Workbench brings the data.

The three core concepts

Everything in the Workbench is built from three objects. Once these click, the rest of the docs read easily.

Strategy

A strategy is a precise, mechanical rule set for trading SPX 0DTE options — for example a Multiple Entry Iron Condor (MEIC) with a specific entry time, premium target, spread width, and stop loss. Change any one parameter and you get a different strategy variant with different results. That is why the database holds 200,000+ variants rather than a handful of named strategies: the parameters are the strategy.

Backtest

A backtest is the simulated historical performance of one strategy variant: every trade it would have taken, replayed against intraday market history. Each variant in the browser comes with its full backtest — equity curve, drawdowns, and risk metrics — pre-computed, so comparing two ideas takes seconds instead of hours. Backtests are hypothetical by construction; how we model fills and slippage, and where the limits are, is covered in Data & Methodology.

Portfolio

A portfolio is a weighted combination of strategies — each with its own contract count — analyzed as a single unit. Portfolios are the point of the Workbench: individually good strategies can overlap in their bad days, while combining uncorrelated strategies can smooth the equity curve. The Portfolio Builder shows correlation, margin load, and combined KPIs so you can judge the construction, not just the parts.

What you do with it

The Workbench organizes this into a five-step loop — browse strategies, build a portfolio, stress-test it with Monte Carlo simulation, compare candidates, and export the winner (including OptionsApp-compatible files). The 5-step workflow page walks through each step with screenshots.

What it is not

• Not a signal service. No alerts, no trade recommendations, no "take this trade now".
• Not a broker. It never places orders or holds funds; exports are files you take to your own tooling.
• Not a crystal ball. Backtests and simulations describe the past and possible paths — not future results.