How-To Guides
The glossary explains what things are. These pages are procedures — numbered steps you can execute, with the preconditions stated up front and a check at the end so you can tell whether it worked.
Every step is an instruction. Nothing here says “consider your risk tolerance”. A step you cannot act on without deciding something first is not a step, and the gate these pages pass rejects it.
How to Automate a Trading Strategy
To automate a strategy, start from a rule with no judgement left in it, count the parameters, tune on one half of the history and test once on the other, then run it on a paper account before it touches money. The code is the easy part.
Before you start a rule that already passed a walk-forward test · a platform that runs scripts · a paper account
How to Backtest a Trading Strategy
To backtest a strategy, split the history in two before looking at either half, tune the rule on the first half only, then run it once on the second with real costs included. The held-out half is the only part of the test that means anything.
Before you start charting software with history · a rule already written down · your real round-trip cost
How to Build a Trading Plan
To build a trading plan, fix one instrument and one timeframe, write the three prices for every trade, set the size from the stop, state the round-trip cost, and fix the sample size before you are allowed to judge the result. The plan is those numbers written down.
Before you start one instrument you will actually trade · your round-trip cost in money · an account balance you can state
How to Find an Entry
To find an entry, mark a level first, name the single thing that has to happen at it, and decide the stop before the position exists. The level supplies the reason and the trigger supplies the timing, and neither works without the other.
Before you start a chart with no indicators on it · one instrument · a stop distance you can measure
How to Find Stocks to Day Trade
To find stocks to day trade, start from the whole market and remove: first what is too thin to absorb your order, then what costs too much to trade, then what does not move enough to pay for the attempt. What survives is a shortlist to watch, not a list to buy.
Before you start a free screener · your round-trip cost · a calendar of scheduled events
How to Read the Market Each Session
To read the market each session, start on a slower chart to decide what you are allowed to do, mark the levels before the session opens, then wait for price to reach one. The decision is made in advance and the session only supplies the timing.
Before you start a shortlist from the night before · one higher timeframe chart · levels marked before the open
How to Start Trading
To start trading, pick one instrument and one timeframe, learn to write three prices before every entry, and size the position from the stop rather than from the setup. Then record 100 trades before judging anything, because the order of these decisions matters more than any of them individually.
Before you start money you can lose entirely · one instrument · a free charting account
7 procedures written so far. Educational, not financial advice.