Strategy library

Rules you can check before you trade them.

Every strategy carries its exact rules, an annotated chart of the setup, the research behind why it should work at all — and the conditions under which you should not take it.

Showing 1–10 of 10 matching strategies

Evidence: ModerateBeginner

Testing a Strategy Before You Trade It

the page that decides whether any of the others are worth anything

Every page in this library ends up in the same place: you have to find out whether it works on your instrument, your timeframe, your broker and your costs. Nobody else's result answers that.

AnyFoundations · Method
Evidence: WeakBeginner

Candlestick Patterns: What the Testing Shows

the page that explains why the others are rated low

Doji, hammer, shooting star, morning star, three white soldiers. There are dozens of named patterns, thousands of courses teaching them, and remarkably little evidence that any of them predicts anything on its own.

AnyPrice action · Reference
Evidence: ModerateBeginner

Mapping Swing Structure

the definitions everything else in this book depends on

Before any structure strategy can be traded it has to be possible to say, mechanically, where the swing points are. Almost nobody does this, which is why two traders looking at one chart disagree about whether structure has broken.

Any — apply the same definition on every oneMarket structure · Foundation
Evidence: StrongBeginner

The News Blackout

a gate in front of every other strategy you run

This is not a trade. It is the rule that decides when none of your other strategies are allowed to be in the market, and it belongs in this book because the same research that makes news tradeable is what makes it dangerous to everything else.

Any — applies to every timeframe you tradeNews · Filter
Evidence: ModerateBeginner

Trading to a Drawdown Budget

the maximum loss is the only number that matters

A challenge gives you a profit target and a maximum loss. Almost everybody optimises for the target. The arithmetic says to optimise for the loss, because the target can be reached late and the loss can only be breached once.

Any — the arithmetic is the same on every horizonProp firm · Risk framing
Evidence: ModerateBeginner

Fixed R Multiple

decide the destination before you leave

The simplest exit there is: measure the distance to your stop, call it 1R, and place the target at a fixed multiple of it. Two R, three R — the number is a choice, but it is made once and applied to every trade.

AnyExit · Fixed target
Evidence: WeakBeginner

Partial Scale-Out

what it buys, and what it costs

Take half off at a modest multiple, move the stop to break even, let the rest run. It is probably the most widely used management rule in retail trading and it is worth being precise about what it does.

AnyExit · Position management
Evidence: ModerateBeginner

The Time Stop

if it has not worked yet, it is not going to

Close the position after a fixed number of bars, whatever it is doing. No level, no indicator — just the clock.

Any · the bar count is set by the entry's own horizonExit · Time
Evidence: ModerateBeginner

Fixed Fractional Risk

the same percentage every time

Risk the same fraction of the account on every trade. The position size is whatever makes that true given the stop distance — so a wide stop means a small position and a tight stop means a large one, automatically.

AnyRisk · Position sizing
Evidence: ModerateBeginner

Daily Loss Limit and Trade Cap

the two numbers that end bad days

Two limits, both checked automatically: a maximum loss for the day, and a maximum number of trades for the day. Either one is reached and the platform is closed until tomorrow.

Any · a daily limit, reset at your own session boundaryRisk · Behavioural

What the evidence rating means

Strong

The mechanism has peer-reviewed, FX-specific research behind it.

Moderate

The mechanism is sound, but at least one step of it is untested.

Weak

Practitioner literature only — no published research supports the mechanism.

It rates the mechanism — whether there is published research explaining why the market should behave this way. It does not rate profit. Strong does not mean the trade will work. None of these have been run on our own account, and no page here shows a backtest figure.

What the level means

Beginner

One instrument, one timeframe, every rule visible on the chart.

Intermediate

Several conditions have to line up, and execution starts to matter.

Professional

Needs an outside data feed, a basket, real order flow, or an unusual tolerance for lumpy losses.

The level describes what it takes to run the strategy, not how well it works. Several Beginner pages are better evidenced than several Professional ones — a basket carry trade is Professional because it needs eight currencies and a swap table, not because it is cleverer than buying a pullback.

Trading carries risk and most retail accounts lose money. Nothing in this library is financial advice or a recommendation to trade. The charts are illustrations of the rules on constructed candles — they are not records of trades and not backtests.