Every trader has a strategy that looks great in their head. Backtesting is how you find out whether it actually works. Here is how to test strategies properly, what metrics matter, and why most backtest results are too good to be true.
A risk-reward ratio compares how much you stand to lose on a trade to how much you stand to gain. It is arguably the most important number in your trading plan, because it determines whether your strategy can survive a normal losing streak.
Every month, a handful of economic data releases move the forex market more in five minutes than most sessions move in five days. Non-Farm Payrolls, CPI prints, and central bank rate decisions create violent spikes, whipsaws, and trend shifts that can make or break a trading account.
A CFD is a contract between you and your broker to exchange the difference in an asset's price from when you open the trade to when you close it. You never own the underlying asset. That single distinction shapes everything about how CFDs work, what they cost, and why regulators treat them differently from traditional investing.
The Relative Strength Index is one of the most popular indicators in trading. It is also one of the most misused. Understanding what RSI actually measures, and what it does not, is the difference between a useful tool and an expensive distraction.
Most traders have a strategy. Very few have a plan. The difference is the gap between knowing what to trade and knowing how to trade it consistently, day after day, without letting emotions rewrite the rules.
Every trade starts with an order. The type of order you choose determines your entry price, your exit price, and whether your risk management plan actually executes when it matters.
Moving averages are probably the most widely used indicator in trading. They appear on nearly every chart, in every asset class, across every timeframe. At their core, moving averages smooth out price data to reveal the underlying trend.
A candlestick chart is the default view on almost every trading platform for a reason. Each candle packs four data points into a single visual shape that tells you what buyers and sellers did during that time period.
Most forex traders who blow their accounts do not fail because they picked the wrong strategy, but because they picked the wrong trading style. Scalping, day trading, and swing trading each demand different skills, schedules, and temperaments.
Support and resistance is the most fundamental concept in technical analysis. Every chart pattern, every indicator, every trading strategy ultimately comes back to the question: where is price likely to stall or reverse?
Most traders obsess over entries and exits. The ones who survive obsess over how much they risk per trade. Position sizing is the single most important skill in risk management, and the 1% rule is where it starts.