Forex trading plan software

Forex Trading Plan.

1.1. What is a Forex Trading Plan?

The forex trading plan is the systematic approach to currency trading which controls all aspects of the trading. The trading is conducted through simultaneous application of three different systems - the forex trading system, the money management system and the emotion management system, as is shown below. These three systems are three pillars of the successful currency trading.

Each of the systems will have its own rule sets (descriptions of the signals/conditions and the actions that they require) related to the object of their operation. The rule set of each system are converted into simple-to-follow instructions - checklists - that the trader or the computer can easily follow. These checklists will govern the whole trading process - controlling the timing of the trade entries and exits (forex trading system) , the value of the opened trades in relation to the account balance (money management system) and the emotional state of the trader (emotion management system). The resultant trade details should be recorded in the trading log and later studied for the ideas on how to improve each of the systems.

1.2. What are Rule Sets?

The forex trading system will contain the rules on which types of technical and/or fundamental signals should be considered and when the trades should be opened and closed. The money management system will contain the rules on what is the optimal per-trade exposure for the trading system which is used by the trader. The emotional management system will set the rules on the degree of emotional involvement permissible for the trader in each of the trades - along with the methods for strengthening the beneficial emotions and weakening the destructive emotions.

1.3. What are Checklists?

The trading system's checklist will contain the exact description of the conditions for the trade entries and trade exits (i. e. which technical or fundamental signals should converge to justify opening or closing of a position). Ideally, this checklist should leave no room for second-guessing the signals that the trading system generates: you either open or close a trading position because all fits or you don't. In most cases such low level of ambiguity is possible only with the mechanical trading systems while the discretionary trading systems, as their name suggests, usually include the possibility of second-guessing the signals by the trader. A trade entry checklist will contain questions (which are most easily processed by the mind) regarding the conditions which will lead to the opening of a position. For example, if the rule set of your currency trading system requires that you open a trade when the 20-day moving average crosses over the 50-day moving average the checklist might record this rule in the following question: "Is the 20-day moving average close to crossing over the 50-day moving average; If yes - prepare to open a trade; if not - stay still". Mechanical trading systems have a distinct advantage over discretionary trading in terms of the frequency that the trading system checklist is gone through - while an average discretionary trader can go through his checklist only a certain number of times per hour without getting exhausted, the mechanical trading systems are incessantly checking the markets for the relevant signals without resting for a single second.

The emotional exposure checklist will contain the instructions for tracking emotional involvement of the trader in the trading process and the methods for controlling it. Even if the checklists derived from the trading and the money management systems are in themselves powerful emotion control systems (or weapons against the emotions), it is necessary to have a separate standalone emotion management system, given the persistence of the destructive emotions. As an example of the question that can be asked in the emotional exposure checklist - "Am I getting angry when the stop-loss is hit; if yes - I should remind myself that the losses are the inseparable part of successful currency trading."

Successful forex trading requires that all three trading systems work in harmony with each other (all three are equally important) - that the trades are opened and closed when there is no conflict between the systems' instructions (checklists). The allocation efficiency calculator (Please note: This calculator requires that Javascript is enabled in your browser) demonstrates the necessity of meeting the constraints of both the forex trading system and the money management system. The combined effect of these two systems on the trading is shown by the "Math. Exp.*% Risked" cell on the forex trading simulator.(Please note: The size of this page is 0,6 Mbs and it requires that you have Flash installed and Javascript enabled in your browser).

Note : It should be noted that the emotion management system is only required when the trader is manually executing the signals of his or her trading system. If the trading is fully automated the emotion management system can be dispensed with - because no emotions will be interfering with the process of the currency trading.

1.4. What is the Trading Log?

All information regarding trade entries and exits should be recorded in the trading log. If you are trading a discretionary trading system you will need to manually enter this information. If you are trading with a mechanical trading system the conditions for trade entries and exists will usually be recorded automatically. The trading log will tell you how well your systems are working under the current market conditions. You can analyze this information and use your findings to change the way your systems operate - so that you can achieve better results with your trade timing, position sizing or emotion control.

1.5. Mastering Forex Trading.

Trading is often compared to business. If foreign exchange trading is business then the forex trading plan is your business plan which should be prepared before you start trading with the real money. The better you prepare this plan the more success you can expect to achieve in real currency trading. To assist you in this process we have selected the best books that you can use to create your own trading plan. You can also browse this site for ideas on system development starting from the top system description pages (the links at the start of this page) and then going down to the pages describing individual system components.

Even if forex trading is a business it differs significantly from traditional brick and mortar businesses. Trading like any business is subject to geometric growth if managed properly – but only the trading allows to completely control this growth and its speed – with no customers and competitors and other external forces like government regulations affecting your money making ability and the speed of your account growth. There are no real competitors when you trade on the forex other than yourself – global investment banks and hedge funds that move the price don’t know you exit (unless you are one of them) and possibly will never know….they don’t care where you place your stop losses and profit targets. The only way you can reduce your long term profit potential is by deviating from your trading plan. Nothing else has the power to take the success from you. In fact, the best definition of success in the forex trading is following your forex trading plan with %100 precision.

Following your trading plan with 100% precision shows that you trust yourself and believe that the knowledge that you have encapsulated in your systems will with time help you to reach your financial goals. Following your trading plan with absolute exactness comes from the master principle of currency speculation which requires that no aspect of the trading should be left to chance. Only by the conscious and ac tive control of each and every aspect of the currency trading - that is, by following your forex trading plan - can you expect to be successful in forex trading.

Create and Analyze Trading Strategies.

use the tools every professional trader dreams of.

Expert Advisor Studio.

Online generator and analyzer for expert advisors. Supports MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 hedging and netting accounts.

Expert Advisor Studio allows you to create strategies that work best with your broker. You gain full control over the historical data, the trading rules and the parameters of your account. Defining acceptance criteria, strategy validation and Stop Loss & Take Profit levels is a breeze. Expert Advisor Studio comprises tools for advanced analysis and strategy robustness testing such as: Out of Sample, Monte Carlo and Multi Market. You will most likely value the ability to filter and sort all the generated strategies in a collection.

Forex Strategy Builder Professional.

Professional platform for generating and analyzing advanced strategies. Supports MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 netting accounts.

Forex Strategy Builder Professional (FSB Pro) is the flagship program for technical analysis. It brings a whole new level of understanding in automatic trading.

Here you can build your trading strategies using sophisticated design tools that allow you to modify already opened positions, use indicators from different currency pairs, follow the trends of higher time frames. Forex Strategy Builder enables you to create Expert Advisors that act on several levels by using logical groups for the trading rules.

The program allows you to study the behavior of your strategies in the deepest detail. This happens by using different methods of calculating the historical test and lower timeframe data.

Binary Options Tester.

Generator of strategies for binary options. Supports MetaTrader 4 for signals, BO plugin required for trading.

Yes. You are reading it correctly. This is the first software in the world that allows you to make a detailed historical test of binary options strategies. BO Tester has all the capabilities of EA Studio but it is programmed to trade according to the binary options trading rules.

You can use the program to get hints when it's the right time to enter the market. You can also trade automatically if your MetaTrader 4 broker offers you a BO plugin for automatic BO expert trading.

Algo Studio.

Moderate experience required, Online, Subscription. Supports cAlgo and cTrader.

Algo Studio follows the principles of EA Studio. This application uses copies of the original cAlgo indicators and gives you the opportunity to generate and analyse cBots for cAlgo and cTrader.

The cBots that you export are written in 100% clean C# code that you can compile and test in cAlgo.

You can also load and trade your best trading bots in cTrader with a demo or real account.

NinjaScript Studio.

Moderate experience required, Online, Subscription. Supports NT 7 & NT 8.

NinjaScript Studio helps you to generate trading strategies automatically. You can import data for the market you need in the app and to set a virtual account. After that you can generate strategies automatically. The automated Strategy Generator creates strategies for your market with the desired entry amount and the Stop Loss and Take Profit. The Generator validates the strategies with criteria you set and collects the best of them in a Collection.

NinjaScript Studio provides powerfull tools for testing the robustness of your strategies - a Monte Carlo simulator and a Multi Market tester.

You can fully automate the your workflow by using the Strategy Reactor. It do what you normally do manually - genaring a strategy, optimising the indicator parameters, validating with Monte Carlo and Multi Market and collecting the best ones.

Why Our Forex Software Matters.

I am happy with my approach (extremely low risk), and many of the strategies are excellent - FSB is a fantastic software, I can't thank you enough for creating it! I am currently active trading with more than 40 strategies for a few months, and am having very exciting success so far.

I have just started a free trial yesterday, 24 hours back and I have already loaded an EA into MT4 and a winning trade has also been generated. Amazing software and really fantastic support with Mr Popov so wiling to help.

I have also taken a free trial with another software and even after a week not able to understand anything.

The whole experience is fantastic!

I normally program and test an expert for about two months on MT4. I do this for 2 days with the Strategy Builder. It saves me a great amount of time.

Even the high priced software will have trouble matching this one. FSB Pro may already offer the most features of any of the similar software, no matter the price!!

David MacKay (BlaiserBoy)

I remember the beginning and early days of FSB and FST development. It has been a tremendous evolvement indeed. Latest FSB Pro is far beyond my expectations. Several years ago I couldn't even imagine that I can run such a great software in my computer.

I just want to congratulate you on your brilliant feature called "Strategy Generator". This is what separate your software from all your competitors.

. backtest with MT4 is sloooooooooooooooow. I very much more like lightning speed of FSB.

I am Hungarian, I work in Korea and your software save me a lot of work in back testing and trading. Very precisions work, flawless programming, I appreciate it, keep up.

First of all, thanks mr. Popov for your development and passion doing this software, I would like to tell you that my family's life drastically changed financially because of your unique gifts programming something so special for us.

What I really like in Forex Strategy Builder is the ability to see results immediately without the need to click the "Start" button in MetaTrader over and over again. But it's so fast that I always wonder whether the result is real or not.

Supported Trading Platforms.

Meta Trader 4.

MetaTrader 4 (Wikipedia: MetaTrader 4) is a desktop trading platform created by MetaQuotes corp. It is the most used platform among the retail forex traders provided by more than 400 brokers. MT4 was well accepted because it allows the traders to use their own programs for demo and real trading and for market analysis.

Our Products.

Forex Strategy Builder can connect to MT4 via a bridge, which gives you the capability to trade strategies with all FSB Pro indicators. The program also exports native expert advisors. A big advantage is that you can trade a portfolio of experts on a single currency pair.

Expert Advisor Studio provides mean for importing data from MT4 and exports native MQL4 experts.

Meta Trader 5.

MetaTrader 5 was designed to replace MT4. The program came with an advanced programming language, which was later partially implemented in MT4. Now MT 5 provides equal functionality to MT4. However, there is a difference in the order execution code, which makes the MQL4 experts code incompatible. Fortunately our forex software covers both versions.

Our Products.

Forex Strategy Builder can import historical data from MT5 and can generate experts in the MQL5 language. The program supports only netting accounts. It utilizes the MT5 capability to modify the positions volume, which is very useful when your experts add, reduce or reverse positions.

Expert Advisors Studio supports both MetaTrader 5 netting and hedging accounts.

cAlgo & cTrader.

cAlgo & cTRader are provided by Spotware. The main difference between cAlgo and MT is the programming language - full featured C# vs. custom made MQL. However, cAlgo lacks a good programming editor and debugging functionality.

Our Products.

Algo Studio supports cAlgo and cTRader. It is a powerful online platform for automatically generating, testing and analysing cBots for cAlgo and cTrader. The app exports native C# source code for cAlgo.

It uses only standard cAlgo and cTrader indicators. The exported cBots are very clean and fast. You can easily modify them in the cAlgo editor. After a compilation, you can see the cBots in cTrader for real or demo trading.

What to do next?

Start working with the platform that suits you best. We promise, that in time you will get a better and more confident trader.

All platforms are made to protect you as a trader, to protect your account and to increase your profits.

The sooner you start the better. Choose one of our packages because they are the most effective way to get software that has been proven to be effective.

Invest in Your Success!

Purchase a forex pack with all useful forex tools you need.

Forex Software Ltd.

Automated forex trading software for beginners and professional traders. Create, test and export Expert Advisors for MetaTrader.

Strategy Software.

Docs & Guides.

Risk Disclosure.

Futures and forex trading contains substantial risk and is not for every investor. An investor could potentially lose all or more than the initial investment. Risk capital is money that can be lost without jeopardizing ones’ financial security or life style. Only risk capital should be used for trading and only those with sufficient risk capital should consider trading.

Hypothetical Performance Disclosure.

Hypothetical performance results have many inherent limitations, some of which are described here. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those shown; in fact, there are frequently sharp differences between hypothetical performance results and the actual results subsequently achieved by any particular trading program. One of the limitations of hypothetical performance results is that they are generally prepared with the benefit of hindsight. In addition, hypothetical trading does not involve financial risk, and no hypothetical trading record can completely account for the impact of financial risk of actual trading. for example, the ability to withstand losses or to adhere to a particular trading program in spite of trading losses are material points which can also adversely affect actual trading results. There are numerous other factors related to the markets in general or to the implementation of any specific trading program which cannot be fully accounted for in the preparation of hypothetical performance results and all which can adversely affect trading results.

Copyright © 2006 - 2017 Forex Software Ltd. All rights reserved.

Forex trading plan: why you need it and how to make it.

If you want to succeed in the Forex market, you need to be able to plan ahead. If you decide to dive head first into the Forex market without any preparation the chances of you succeeding are very unlikely. You need to know what you're looking for, what your aim is and how you plan to achieve your goals.

Many sources will stress the importance Forex trading plans, not only for beginners but also for the most advanced traders. This article will provide you with a better understanding on the importance and uses of a Forex trading plan, so that you can use the information to become a better and more successful trader.

What is a trading plan?

A trading plan in the FX market isn't really any different from any other plan you could imagine. It is an outline of your planned trading activities, something like a to-do list when it comes to trading Forex online. The main idea of the trading plan is to develop a set of rules that you are going to adhere to and how you are going to implement them. Once you have the rules written, it is much easier to apply them as there is a clear plan of action on how they need to be followed. In addition to this, a trading plan can help you analyse the market better and apply your analysis to your trading strategy.

A Forex plan can prevent you from making rash, irreversible decisions - something that is particularly useful when emotions start to come into play. They stop you making silly mistakes and allow you to evaluate your wins and losses. Now let's look at how to make a Forex trading plan.

Making an FX plan.

In the beginning, developing a plan is rather simple. The first step is to determine the frequency of your trading. You may observe your account history and determine how many trades you were opening on average per day or per week and what the average duration of your trades were. This is vital, as your plan should clearly illustrate the time dimension that you're going to be using in your trading. If you are a day trader, your plan should be plotted over 24 hours. If your positions tend to be closed within a few days after they have been opened, then you would be better off illustrating your plan over a week. This is vital in order to understand how to develop a Forex trading plan.

Once you have determined the frequency of your trading, you will have to either consider a day or a week as a dimension for your trading plan. In some rare cases, you will have to use a month, but this is quite unlikely. Let's assume you are a day trader, so we are going to consider a day as a unit of time for our plan. As we have determined this, it is now time to add the limitations to the trading plan. The rule of thumb is to take a number of your winning trades and multiply it by 1.2. In other words, if on average a trader makes 20 trades per day, yet only six trades are winning ones, a trader should not trade more than seven trades per day. Limitation of trader is certainly beneficial, let's look at why this is the case.

Less opportunities.

Typically, the idea 'less opportunities' has a negative meaning, yet this is not necessarily true when it comes to trading. In order to understand how to make a winning Forex trading plan, we should acknowledge that every opportunity in FX market can bring both profit and loss. Once you have decided to limit your trading to a set amount of trades per day, you will tend to focus on the trade with much more detail. Every trade that you will be making will be analysed much closer, as with a every wrong trade you will not only lose money, but you will also lose opportunities to open new trades that could have been winning ones.

Lower chance for emotional trading.

Another important aspect of limiting your trades to a certain amount is to avoid trying to regain balance through emotional trading. Many traders encounter this problem more often than you would think. They end up losing money on the market, don't take time away to regroup and rationalise their decisions and instead make hasty, often silly choices. Usually these traders will make additional trades to try and compensate for their losses. This is often done with an increased volume, creating a higher level of risk, and this is what leads traders to potentially lose money.

How to prepare a Forex trading plan.

We've looked at the importance of time dimensions for your trading plan and how limitation of your trades is vital, so let's take a look at the other items that will help you in preparing your trading plan for the FX market.

Entry signals.

Many of us have had the same feeling when you see market prices. You want to jump straight in as you believe that something major is about to happen. Later you find yourself with an open position and you do not really know what to do with it, where to close it, or what profit to look for. This is quite often the case, especially with newbie traders. Every Forex trading plan should include a clear description of the entry signals you are planning to use in your trading strategy. Once you have noted down these signals, the main task is to adhere to these signals. Needless to say that such signals should be as descriptive as they can be. In other words, if you are using four indicators in your chart setup, you should include all four of the indicators in the description of your entry signal.

Exit signals.

Quite similar to entry signals, every trader should have a clear understanding of their exit signals when it comes to learning how to prepare an FX trading plan on a professional level. Opening a trade at the right time and on the right instrument is essential. However, in some cases you may close a decent trade and lose out, just because you were not patient enough. You could also risk closing a winning trade too early and miss out on the full profit you could have achieved. This usually happens due to the lack of exit signals in the trader's plan. In order to make your plan the right way, you should have a clear overview about the profit you expect to make for each trade.

As we have just mentioned, exit and entry signals are vital. Such signals let you understand how to trade according to your trading strategy and adhering to this will eliminate the need of adding your emotions to the whole trading process. What is an important point to cover is that every trade should have a stop-loss (SL) and take-profit (TP) attached to it. When looking at how to write a Forex trading plan, it's worth bearing in mind that SL levles are much more important than TP levels.

As a disciplined trader, you should ensure that every trade you place has a stop-loss level attached to it. There should be no exception when it comes to setting up a stop-loss. In addition to this, your trading plan should actually list a stop-loss level, perhaps it could be different for various trading instruments, but it should definitely be there.

Take-profit levels aren't as important, however, to make the best Forex trading plan, it is recommended to set take-profit levels before you actually commit to any trade and write them down as a part of your trading plan.

Conclusion.

Now you have understood how to build your own Forex trading plan, it is time to take action. If you already have some history on your MetaTrader platform with Admiral Markets, then go ahead and perform a quick analysis of your trading habits. Check how long your positions usually last, what the amount of winning trades on average per day or per week is and set yourself some limits. Once this is done, check your trading strategy for exit and entry signals, write them down in your Forex trade plan and get organised in FX trading.

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What is a Trading Plan?

Now that you’re about half way through college, here’s one piece of advice you should always remember.

In other words: Don’t follow someone else’s trading advice blindly!

We’re all in different situations in life, and we all have different market views, thought processes, risk tolerance levels, and market experience.

Have your own personalized trading plan and update it as you learn from the market.

With rock solid discipline, your trading could look like this.

Developing a Trading Plan and sticking to it are the two main ingredients of trading discipline .

It has to be rock solid discipline.

Plastic solid discipline won’t do. Nor will discipline made from straws and sticks. We don’t want to be little piggies.

We want to be successful traders!

And having rock solid trading discipline is the most important characteristic of successful traders.

A trading plan defines what is supposed to be done, why, when, and how. It covers your trader personality, personal expectations, risk management rules, and trading system(s).

When followed, a trading plan will help limit trading mistakes and minimize your losses.

After all, “ If you fail to plan, then you’ve already planned to fail. ”

A trading plan removes any bad decision making in the heat of the moment.

The best way to prevent it from happening is to minimize (notice we did not say eliminate) thinking by having a plan for every potential market action.

With the right forex trading plan, every action is spelled out, so that in the heat of the moment you don’t have to make any rash decisions.

You just simply stick to your trading plan.

The Difference Between a Trading Plan and a Trading System.

Before we continue, we have to quickly distinguish the difference between a trading plan and a trading system.

A trading system describes how you will enter and exit trades. A trading system is PART of your trading plan but is just one of several important parts, i. e., analysis, executions, risk management, etc.

Trading systems will be covered more in-depth later on in the lesson, but we thought that it was important to point out the difference between the two upfront to avoid any confusion.

Your Progress.

Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved. William Jennings Bryan.

BabyPips helps individual traders learn how to trade the forex market.

We introduce people to the world of currency trading, and provide educational content to help them learn how to become profitable traders. We're also a community of traders that support each other on our daily trading journey.