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There has been quite a lot of talk about oil in the news recently with some analysts suggesting the price could reach $100 per barrel, which would be the highest since 2014. Whether that will happen, that is another story. In this article, we take a look at world’s largest crude oil exporters.

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest crude oil exporter with $133,6 billion worth of oil exports in 2017 which was around 15,9% of the total crude oil exports in the world. The middle eastern country is highly reliant on its oil exports and it has the 2nd largest proven oil reserves in the world. In recent years, we have seen the Kingdom announce ''Saudi Vision 2030'' which outlines plans to diversify its economy to reduce its dependence on oil.

One of the most notable plans is the new city called Neom, you can find out more about the ambitious city plan by clicking here. Capital: Riyadh Official language: Arabic Population: 33,000,000 Gross Domestic Product: $683 billion Currency: Saudi riyal (SAR) Russia Russia is world’s second largest crude oil exporter at with $93,3 billion (11,1% of the total) worth of oil exports last year. Russia is the biggest country in the world and has the 11th largest economy in the world at $1,5 trillion, according to the World Bank.

It’s biggest export partners are the European Union, China and neighbour Belarus. Russia is 8th on the list of world’s largest proven oil reserves. Capital: Moscow Official language: Russian Population: 144,526,636 Gross Domestic Product: $1,5 trillion Currency: Russian ruble (RUB) Iraq Iraq is third on the list with $61,5 billion worth of oil exports in 2017, 7,3% of the total.

Iraq was one of the founding member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) with Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela when it was established back in 1960. Iraq’s economy is highly depended on oil with oil production accounting for 2/3 of the country’s GDP. Capital: Baghdad Official language: Arabic and Kurdish Population: 37,202,671 Gross Domestic Product: $202 billion Currency: Iraqi dinar (IQD) Canada The North American country is the fourth largest crude oil exporter in 2017 with $54 billion worth of crude oil exports (6,4% of the total).

Canada has the 3rd largest proven oil reserves with 95% of these reserves are in the oil sands deposits in the western province of Alberta. Capital: Ottawa Official language: English and French Population: 37,067,011 Gross Domestic Product: $1,6 trillion Currency: Canadian dollar (CAD) United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates, the third largest economy in the Middle East is the 5th largest crude oil exporter with $49,3 billion worth of oil exports in 2017 (5.9% of the total). Even though United Arab Emirates has the most diversified economy in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a regional intergovernmental political and economic union which is made up of all Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, it is still highly dependent on oil.

Capital: Abu Dhabi Official language: Arabic Population: 9,575,729 Gross Domestic Product: $382 billion Currency: UAE dirham (AED) This article is written by a GO Markets Analyst and is based on their independent analysis. They remain fully responsible for the views expressed as well as any remaining error or omissions. Trading Forex and Derivatives carries a high level of risk.

Click here for more information on trading oil commodities.

Last year the total sales of gold exports reached $310 billion mark. The top 5 countries made up a large portion of the total gold exports last year with shipments accounting to more than $177 billion, which was 57.30% of the world total. In 2011 we saw the price of gold reach record highs at over $1,900.

Since then we have seen the price fall and currently trading at around $1,219 level. In this article, we will take a look at the top 5 biggest gold exporters in the world. XAU/USD Monthly Chart Switzerland Switzerland was the largest gold exporter of gold in 2017 with $67.9 billion worth of exports which was around 21.9% of the total.

European Union is Switzerland ’s largest trading partner with 46.6% of all Swiss exports by value being delivered to the EU. Switzerland has the 20th largest economy in the world at $678 billion and 3rd in the world per capita at $80,189. Capital: Bern Official languages: German, French and Italian Population: 8,508,898 Gross Domestic Product: $678 billion Currency: Swiss Franc (CHF) Hong Kong Hong Kong, officially known as Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China is the second largest exporter in the world with exports worth up to $52.2 billion, 16.8% of the total in 2017.

Hong Kong has the 33rd largest economy in the world at $341 billion and 16th per capita at $46,193. Hong Kong is the 2nd largest foreign exchange market in Asia and 4th largest in the world in 2016 with a daily average turnover of forex transaction reaching $437 billion, according to the Bank for International Settlements. Official languages: Chinese and English Population: 7,448,900 Gross Domestic Product: $341 billion Currency: Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates is the third largest exporter of gold with $20.7 billion or 6.7% of the total world exports in 2017.

The United Arab Emirates has world’s 19th largest economy at $638 billion, and it’s the third largest in the Middle East, behind Saudi Arabia and Iran. Capital: Abu Dhabi Official language: Arabic Population: 9,575,729 Gross Domestic Product: $383 billion Currency: UAE dirham (AED) United States With exports worth $19.8 billion, United States is the fourth on the list of the largest exporters of gold which is about 6.4% of the world total. As you probably may know, the US has the largest economy in the world at a whopping $19 trillion.

Even though the US has the largest economy in the world, it also tops the list for the country with the largest total debt at over $18 trillion. Capital: Washington D.C. Official language: English Population: 325,719,178 Gross Domestic Product: $19 trillion Currency: United States Dollar (USD) United Kingdom The United Kingdom is fifth on the list of the largest gold exporters in the world at $17 billion worth of exports in 2017, which is 5.5% of the world total.

Same as on this list, it is also the fifth largest economy in the world at $2.6 trillion total Gross Domestic Product. United Kingdom is the home of the world’s second largest financial center in London, according to the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) report. Capital: London Official language: English Population: 66,040,229 Gross Domestic Product: $2.6 trillion Currency: Pound Sterling (GBP) This article is written by a GO Markets Analyst and is based on their independent analysis.

They remain fully responsible for the views expressed as well as any remaining error or omissions. Trading Forex and Derivatives carries a high level of risk. Sources: Go Markets MT4, Google, Datawrapper

Candlestick charts are one of the most popular and commonly used tools by traders in analysing the markets. In this article, we will briefly look at its history then move on to some basics on how to interpret these charts. We will also look at some of the major candlestick chart patterns to give you an understanding of how you can use them for your trading analysis.

A brief history of candlestick charts Candlestick charts originated in Japan in the 18 th century and is one of the earliest known forms of technical analysis. Today, it is the most popular chart used by FX traders as it provides a quick and easy picture of price action in a particular trading session. Analysing and understanding a candlestick A candle is made up of a rectangular ‘body’ and single lines at both ends called ‘wicks’.

Candlesticks provide a more visual representation of price action than you get from simple Bar or Line charts. For the purpose of this article, the bear (down) candle will be red, and a bull (up) candle will be blue. One candle will represent one whole trading day.

However, it is important to note that with the MT4 platform you can also set up the candlestick chart to reflect 1 min, 5 min, 15 min, 30 min, 1 hour, 4 hour, daily, weekly and monthly time frames. Candlestick body represents strength of price action As per the diagram below, the formation of a candlestick represents the open, high, low and close price for the day. The length of the body shows the strength of the price action.

The longer the body of a candlestick, the stronger or more aggressive the price action is. In the example below shows two similar size candles, however, the second one is a stronger bullish candle as the body is longer. Wicks represent buyer and seller activities The thin lines above and below the body are called ‘wicks’ and represent the high and low range of the price for the day.

The wick on top of the body represents sellers and selling activity. The bottom wick indicates the presence of buyers and buying activity. The length of the wick gives a good indication of the strength of the type of activity i.e. a longer wick is more definitive than a shorter one.

A long upper wick and short lower wick indicates that there were buyers earlier in the day pushing prices higher. However, strong sellers later on in the session forced the prices down from their highs, creating a long upper wick. A long lower wick and short higher wick indicates that sellers dominated earlier in the day, however, stronger buyers entered later in the session pushing the prices higher from their lows and creating a long lower wick.

Common Candlestick chart formations Here are some of the most common candlestick chart formations that FX traders use for their trading analysis. Spinning Tops A Spinning Top is a Candlestick with a short body and a long upper and lower wick. It indicates uncertainty in the market and puts a question over which way prices may be heading.

The long wicks indicate strong buying and selling activities at some stage during the trading session, but with no clear winner at the end. If a Spinning Top occurs towards the end of a trend it may indicate that the trend is coming to an end. If it occurs while the market is moving sideways, it may indicate a start of a trend.

A Spinning Top is usually a Neutral signal. Doji A Doji candlestick is formed when the opening price is the same or very close to the closing price. It signals a balance between buyers and sellers.

A Doji with a long upper wick indicates the initial presence of buyers. The price has initially moved higher and eventually attracted sellers. In this case, the sellers are seen as the stronger group, as they closed out the day.

A Doji with long lower wick indicates the initial presence of sellers. The lower prices attracted buyers, who ended up being the stronger group as they closed out the trading session. Looking at a Doji on its own may not give a clear buy or sell signal.

But looking at it and taking into consideration preceding candles, it can provide some valuable information. For example, if a Doji occurs at the end of a trend or even one trading session, it may be a sign that a potential change in direction may happen. It might also occur at the end of a congestion phase.

It might follow an up candle or a down candle. The strength of the previous candle, as measured by the length of the real body, will give traders an idea on how to interpret the Doji signal. In the diagram below, a Doji appears after a relatively bullish session.

This can either indicate a start of a new phase of the uptrend (if a trend exists), or a potential change into a new (bearish) direction. Gravestone Doji It is a reversal pattern that could mean a bullish rally is about to end. This is formed when the open, low and close are equal and the high creates a long upper wick.

The resulting candlestick looks like an inverted “T”. A Gravestone Doji indicates that buyers dominated trading and drove prices higher during the early part of the session. However, by the end of the trading day, sellers started to appear and pushed prices back to the opening level and the session low.

A Gravestone Doji is usually a bearish signal. Dragonfly Doji This Doji formation is another signal of indecision between buyers and sellers. A Dragonfly Doji is formed when the open, high and close are equal and the low creates a long lower shadow.

The resulting candlestick looks like a “T”. A Dragonfly Doji indicates that sellers dominated early trading and drove prices lower during the session. But by the end of the session, buyers appeared and drove prices back to the opening level and the session high.

A Dragonfly Doji is usually a bullish signal. Harami A Harami is a reversal pattern and consists of two candlesticks. A Harami formation can be bullish or bearish depending on the direction of the price action.

The most important thing to consider when looking for a Harami is the gap up and gap down in price. A bearish Harami is formed when a large bullish candle (Day 1) is followed by a small bearish or bullish candle (Day 2) which showed a gap down in price. A bullish Harami occurs when a large bearish candle (Day1) is followed by a small bearish or bullish candle that showed a gap up in price.

The important thing to consider is the size of the body of both candles as it is indicative of the strength of the signal. The first candle should have a rather large body. The smaller the body in the second candle the stronger the signal.

Example of a Bearish Harami: Hammer A Hammer is a bullish reversal pattern usually formed at the end of a declining price trend. It is identified by its small body at the higher side of the range. The bottom wick should be at least twice the size of the real body and the upper wick should only be small, if it exists at all.

In chart analysis, it is the length of the wick (of a Hammer formation) relative to the body that creates the signal. The wick could be viewed as a sign of rejection of lower prices and therefore a possible reversal of the trend. Hanging Man A Hanging Man is a bearish reversal pattern.

Its formation is similar to the hammer formation, except that it occurs at the end of a bullish trend. Once again the body is at the top of the range with the lower wick at least twice as long as the body. The upper wick should be short if it can be found at all.

It is best to seek confirmation of a bearish reversal with a follow-up signal the next day. These are just some of the basic candlestick patterns. There are numerous books and online resources available about Candlestick charting.

If you you’re new to FX trading, it would be highly recommended to read up on Candlestick charts to find out how you can use it for your trading. For information on other trading tools, see our Autochartist, Genesis for MetaTrader, VPS for MetaTrader and a-Quant information pages. Rom Revita | Sales Manager Rom is the Sales Manager at Go Markets Pty Ltd and manages the day-to-day running of the Sales, Support and Marketing teams.

He has been with the company since 2013 and is also one of our two appointed Responsible Managers, helping to ensure that the company follows all AFSL regulatory requirements. Rom has extensive financial markets experience and originally comes from an equities & derivatives trading background. He has served on the Trading & Sales Desk with several large broking houses, and now specialises in Margin FX and CFDs.

Connect with Rom: [email protected]

军形篇 - The Chapter of Tactical Dispositions Original Text: 善战者，先为不可胜，以待敌之可胜。 Translation: Good commanders first evaluate the possibility of being defeated and then wait for an opportunity to defeat the enemy. Don’t you think this sounds very similar to using a trading stop-loss? The concept of setting up a stop-loss is to estimate and prepare for the worst case scenario.

As a commander, Master Zhu would suggest you treat the money in your account as your soldiers and take care of their lives. Let's say you're on the battlefield and you strategize that a plan of attack might sacrifice 50% of your army, that's 50% of your soldiers' lives (i.e., 50% of your account balance), surely no respected commander would approve that kind of attack. However, in forex trading, some people will quickly lose 50% of their money in a short period.

In Sun Zhu's eyes, this would make for a very unqualified commander. Therefore, placing a stop-loss that could cause you to lose 50% in a single trade is a poor decision. Most experienced traders might suggest a 2%~5% stop is a wiser move.

Even a 10% stop may be considered quite extreme. Would you risk the lives of 10% of your infantry? Some might argue that it depends on the circumstances, either way, the same level of consideration must be given in trading to have any chance of success.

Also, most traders lose 50% of their account or more because they fail to place any stop-loss measures at all. Under the context of the Art Of War, this means you never bothered to estimate the worst scenario before you attacked. In Master Sun’s eyes, that is extremely unacceptable.

Original Text: 不可胜在己，可胜在敌。 Translation: The ability to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands. The opportunity to defeat the enemy is provided by themselves. A very remarkable concept.

Many investors believe they can actively beat the market, which is wrong. The market is far stronger and smarter beast than the average person. Instead of trying to "beat" the market, more time and effort should go into improving yourself.

For example, try focussing on how to better to defend, such as setting up suitable stop-losses as the previous saying suggests. Once you've developed the ability to protect your soldiers, then all you need is to do is wait for an opportune time to attack (you can observe it from chart patterns), then and only then, will you be trading like an intelligent commander, prepared to lose a battle and win the war. Original Text: 故善战者，能为不可胜，不能使敌之必可胜。 Translation: Thus, a good commander can secure himself against defeat but cannot make sure of defeating the enemy.

Master Sun corrects us here on another common misunderstanding. Nowadays many fund managers will brag about their “target profit” to attract your attention. As an individual investor, you might be vulnerable to being misled and start to think “maybe it's good to set a target profit for my investing too?.” Well, Sun Tzu would argue that this is wrong.

If you set a target return for yourself and you are unable to achieve it, you will most likely become hurried and vulnerable. Imagine your basketball team is losing and it's the last few minutes of the game. How many times have we seen teams abandon their defensive tactics, throwing caution to the wind and put everything they have into the final attack?.

Perhaps having Michael Jordan on the court may help, but ultimately, this scenario doesn't end well for those losing teams. With little to no defense in place, the opposing team will typically score more points and much more easily than before making matters worse. The same logic applies to the financial markets.

There is a general tendency to increase your position and attack more at the worst possible time, and the market will more often punish those who fail to defend their position adequately. Original Text: 故曰：胜可知，而不可为。 Translation: Hence the saying: You may know how to win, but sometimes you are not able to do it. Original Text: 见胜不过众人之所知，非善之善者也； Translation: To see victory only when it is within the ken of the common herd is not the acme of excellence.

Original Text: 战胜而天下曰善，非善之善者也。 Translation: Neither is it the acme of excellence if you win and the whole world says, “Well done!” to you. In this paragraph, Sun illustrates another common misunderstanding by the general public. You probably heard of the 20-80 rule, which states that roughly 20% of the population controls 80% of the global wealth.

You may have also heard that 20% of the population will win at trading while the other 80% will lose. When it comes to trading, this theory suggests the most popular idea about price direction will cause you to lose money in the long run. Thus, if your opinion falls within the common herd, then perhaps you need further training as a trader.

Many beginner traders will follow those famous pundits on the major television stations. You know the ones I'm talking about, those who claim they can predict the market direction with 80% accuracy and never fail. If we consider the 20-80 rule above, then this claim starts to sound quite absurd or should at least raise some internal alarm bells.

Most of these analysts have a claim to fame because they successfully predicted one or two big financial events, say the start of the 2008 crisis. Does this mean they can accurately predict every other upcoming event with such accuracy? Of course not, nobody can.

Hence, Sun Zhu said those who won the applause of the whole world might not be as good as you think. Original Text: 故举秋毫不为多力，见日月不为明目，闻雷霆不为聪耳。 Translation: To lift a hair is no sign of immense strength; to see the sun and moon is no sign of sharp sight; to hear the noise of thunder is no sign of a quick ear. Original Text: 古之所谓善战者，胜于易胜者也。 Translation: Thus the ancients said an excellent winner is one who not only wins but excels in winning with ease.

Original Text: 故善战者之胜也，无智名，无勇功， Translation: Hence his victories bring him neither reputation of wisdom nor credit for courage. Original Text: 故其战胜不忒。不忒者，其所措胜，胜已败者也。 Translation: He wins his battles by making no mistakes. Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated.

Here Sun describes for us what kind of person can be known as an “excellence winner.” This person has trading success based on defense. They make minimal mistakes (i.e., choosing the right time, trend and setting up sensible stop-losses) they also understand that some losses are inevitable while protecting their account for future battles. This kind of success is often very low-key.

It's unlikely to receive any applause or stardom because he or she is not looking to parade their wins in public as it's all part of a more important strategy. Original Text: 故善战者，立于不败之地，而不失敌之败也。 Translation: Hence a skillful commander puts himself into a position which makes it impossible for being defeated and does not miss the moment of defeating the enemy. Original Text: 是故胜兵先胜而后求战，败兵先战而后求胜。 Translation: Thus a victorious strategist only seeks battle after the defense is guaranteed, whereas a losing strategist first encounters a fight and then looks for victory.

These two sentences summarized what we had covered today. First, make sure it is impossible to be defeated (by managing your positions and stop-losses well). In essence, this means even though losses are possible, blowing up an account on a single trade is not.

Seek the most opportune time for a battle (Open a position). Don't just go with the crowd. Do your analysis and study wisely.

Once opened, closely monitor the five elements of the markets ( we covered this in part 1 of this series), then you are heading towards victory. By Lanson Chen – Analyst Lanson Chen @LansonChen This article is written by a GO Markets Analyst and is based on their independent analysis. They remain fully responsible for the views expressed as well as any remaining error or omissions.

Trading Forex and Derivatives carries a high level of risk.

What Is The Art Of War? The Art of War is an ancient Chinese book on military tactics and strategy who written by Sun Tzu around 500 BC. These writings are considered by many to be the most significant literature on military tactics and wisdom that can be applied to everyday life ever conceived.

In this multi-article series, we will be interpreting this ancient text, and exploring its application to modern day investing and trading. The whole book has 13 chapters and is only 6,000 characters long, which is relatively concise for such an old and complex language. I will be breaking this down into sections, explaining the meaning behind each phrase and how to apply this to your trading style or strategy.

Military Style Trading Imagine this. You're sitting in front of your screen opening a candlestick chart and trying to figure out the recent patterns and getting ready to place an order. What if you viewed this chart like a military map?

The money in your account is like the soldiers under your command, and the buy or sell orders are like attack or retreat orders. Can you see what I'm hinting at here? —— Trading and War tactics are both arts and similar in many ways. So why don’t we try absorbing some knowledge from the ancient masterpiece?

Perhaps we'll discover some inspirational gems that we can use in our approach to the financial markets. Chapter 1: Strategy Tips: As we progress through the following sections, whenever you see the word “War,” try to replace it with either “Investment” or “Trading” in your head. Explanation: In ancient society, the theory was those who fail to consider strengthening their military force will die.

Nowadays, modern society suggests if you ignore investment principles, you will also die, not physically, but perhaps perish in mediocrity. For example, we all know that since 2008, the wealth inequality gap has become much worse. A vast number of billionaires have emerged, while the middle classes are considerably poorer than one decade ago.

Different Class Different Mentalities One possible explanation behind this is because most rich people tend to invest their money into the stock market or high yielding assets in contrast to the general middle-class who's mentality is geared towards savings and consumption. If Sun Tzu were around today, he'd likely suggest investments over savings. The reason for this is because investing can amplify your wealth if managed correctly, but the method of saving money could be considered a slow death.

Death By Inflation In short, cash in the bank is devalued over time by the act of inflation. While saving money is not necessary a bad thing for some, failing to learn about investing might mean sacrificing opportunities or degrading one's wealth as its value inevitably starts to erode on the sidelines. (1) Tao Explanation: Tao could represent the basic, intrinsic rules of each investment product. For example, the movement of a currency pair (say GBPUSD) is often affected by the fundamentals, news events (such as Brexit) or even just human behavior.

So how can we trade the intrinsic values as the price is always changing? The answer is to find specific patterns or characteristics that are inherent to whatever product you are trading. To do this, you need to explore all the elements and try to make an informed decision as to the possible move in price.

However, given nobody can predict these moves with 100% accuracy, perhaps the only thing we can do is use the following four factors as a guide to help eliminate bad trading habits, and increase the probability of executing profitable trades. (2) Time You can think of this second factor as Fundamentals. As a qualified investor, you should understand what economic data means (such as GDP growth, unemployment, CPI, etc.), What types of events could cause the price to rise and fall (for example you should know how Bond-yield affects the value of USD) As with the cyclical nature of seasons or knowing the exact time of the sunrise and sunset, fundamentals can provide clues as to when we should place a trade based on the upcoming data. This idea is just like a weather forecaster predicting the chances of rain tomorrow.

Keep in mind that the weather, like markets, is not an accurate science and is subject to change. (3) Earth Ea rth or Topography would represent the field of Technical analysis because this method explores the “landform” of a price chart. For example, the highs and lows are like highlands and lowlands in battlefields, with support and resistance lines acting as potential grounds to set up an ambush or mount a defense. By mastering technical analysis, you will be like a commander, studying the geographical features of a map, navigating the terrain and using this knowledge to plan an attack or send reinforcements.

I will use a straightforward chart to illustrate all the factors that mentioned in Sun Tzu's original text. From the chart below, we can see the trend of oil prices is going up, and the most obvious move is to look for an area of value. The idea is to place a buy order while the level is relatively low.

When the price approaches the trend line, perhaps this is a safer place an order? On the other hand, when activity reaches the upper band, in the context of Sun Tzu, it might be considered “too far and dangerous” to keep attacking; thus the best move is to retreat (close your position and take your profit). We'll be discussing more on topography and technical analysis in further chapters. (4) Commander A commander (i.e., investor) should aspire to obtain the characteristics listed above.

If any of these traits are missing, Sun Tzu would perhaps suggest you are more vulnerable to trading losses in the future. Thus, Investment is also a process of exercising yourself to become a better person. (5) Discipline Discipline involves organizing a set of rules to follow while trading and the text would suggest you should not change these on a discretionary basis. Similar to military orders on a battlefield, it is imperative a commander's orders are followed and not disobeyed.

In short, without discipline and proper execution, the fundamental and technical analysis that you apply above will be meaningless. By Lanson Chen - Analyst Lanson Chen @LansonChen This article is written by a GO Markets Analyst and is based on their independent analysis. They remain fully responsible for the views expressed as well as any remaining error or omissions.

Trading Forex and Derivatives carries a high level of risk. Sources: DB Global Markets Research, "The Art Of War" -Sun Tzu.

As a trader, you’ve probably found that having the right trading plan plays a significant role in your trading success. A basic trading plan should tell you what, when and how much to trade. It should also have specific instructions on when to close out your trades.

As traders, we all need a well thought out trading plan to navigate our way through the turbulent waters of financial markets, with the added benefit of having something to hang on to when we’re in the middle of a trade. Devising a trading plan needs detailed analysis and careful consideration. Unfortunately, we are not able to go through how to develop a complete trading plan in a short article such as this.

However, we are going to discuss some fundamental points to assist anyone who already has a trading plan or is in the process of developing one, helping to make sure it includes these minimum standards. 1. A trading plan that suits your character In any trading plan lies a trading philosophy that determines the overarching framework. The trading philosophy represents your beliefs about the markets.

For example, it shows whether you believe in short-term technical trades, or if you think success can be achieved by making long-term fundamental trades. It shows if you are a trend trader looking to move with the flow of the market, or if you are contrarian in nature and are looking for opportunities to go against the others. Regardless of the trading philosophy you choose, our suggestion is to make sure that it A) is proven and valid, and B) suits your personality.

If the trading philosophy does not suit your character and the way you look at the markets, you will inevitably deviate from your plan and potentially put yourself in a difficult situation, both financially and psychologically. Once you are confident that your trading philosophy is appropriately reflected in your trading plan, your plan should be capable of delivering and managing desired trading opportunities in the context of your trading philosophy. To achieve this, you need to make sure all the below requirements are met as a bare minimum. 2.

Your trading plan should be bias-free Biases occur because we have pre-set ideas in our minds that stop us from making objective decisions. This problem lies within human nature and is the result of our emotional and cognitive limitations. Within the long list of biases that exist, there are two which are the most harmful to many traders: confirmation bias and hindsight bias.

Confirmation bias is when we systematically look for what confirms our prior beliefs and ignore most evidence that challenges our set preconceptions. An excellent example of this bias is when we are trying to ascertain a simple breakout strategy by looking at a chart, a strategy used by many traders to trade the news. If the market keeps going in the direction of the breakout, we gladly count it as a success (after the fact), but if it fails — that is, it reverses its course after the breakout — we call it a Bull/Bear Trap and forget about the failure which has just happened.

By renaming the model, we have shifted our attention from a failed breakout strategy to a now successful Bull/Bear Trap! Under the influence of the confirmation bias, we are likely to pursue trading patterns which otherwise would have had little to no merit. This bias makes us derive conclusions that we’d like to see, instead of seeing what’s actually happened in reality.

The second most crucial bias traders face is the hindsight bias. Hindsight bias is when we look at a chart and find ourselves counting easy trades that would have worked well in the past. It is the moment that you go “it was an obvious head and shoulder” after seeing what had happened afterwards.

This bias comes from our tendency to distort our judgment towards the successful event. If you are given a set of questions about uncertain events (i.e. is the market going to consolidate, trend, reverse etc…) and the correct answer at the same time, it is very likely that you would distort your analysis to conclude in line with the correct answer, as if it really was obvious. Hindsight bias makes trading look easy, and can trick you into believing in trading rules and your ability to forecast – either of which may not be accurate.

If your trading plan has seemingly worked well on historical data but is failing to deliver desired results in real time, then it may be suffering from the above biases. Biases must be removed from your trading plan in order for it to be objective and testable. 3. Your trading plan should be objective An objective trading plan can enable traders of different market views to arrive at the same trading decision.

It has enough details and instructions that it takes any confusion out of trades and leaves no room for personal judgment. For example, a good trading plan does not allow traders to draw any trend lines they see fit, but instead, it dictates the trend line which is appropriate to be drawn. It has as many detailed guidelines as possible to stop traders from improvising. 4.

Your trading plan should be testable The best way to make sure your trading plan is objective and bias-free is to convert it into a set of clear trading rules and let a computer test the trading plan for you. This is called backtesting. By using a computer to do the testing, you are essentially removing human emotions and biases from the equation.

Often during the backtest, you will get a much better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of your trading plan. The downside to backtesting is that it is not easy (it requires coding), and validating a backtested result requires some maths and statistical skills to avoid being trapped by the backtest itself. However, this is still one of the better and cleaner ways to ascertain the validity of your trading system. 5.

Information about the market you are trading The trading plan must hold enough historical information about the performance of the patterns and behaviours of markets you are looking to trade. Whilst the type of the information required depends on the trading strategy, below are a few suggestions that we think should be present in any trading plan that is based on intraday charts: Average size and duration of price swings per trading session Average range per trading session Times of major turning points per trading session Correlations between various trading sessions Historical reactions of the currency to news announcements Important pivots and trends Technical indicators that have worked best over recent history Historical reaction to the session opening and closing times Volatilities per trading session (this can be used to set dynamic stop losses) Intraday correlation with other markets The above should be modified based on your trading strategy. Note that the more you can do to add to the list above, the more confidence you can have in your trading plan. 6.

A solid risk management plan Many of us believe that “stop losses” are the same as risk management. The truth is, stop losses are an essential part of a risk management plan, but are only an element of appropriate risk management. A good risk management plan should have three parts: Tradable instruments: Sometimes you may need to leave a specific currencies/indices out of your tradeable universe just because they can’t justify the risks you will have to take to trade them.

On the other hand, you may at times need to add a few instruments to your universe in order to reduce your risk and maximise your return. You should be able to refer to your risk management plan for these types of questions. Trading size: Your risk management plan should be able to tell how much to trade each time.

It must have a mechanism in place to make sure one or two bad trades do not impact the integrity of your account. Stop losses: Your risk management plan should make sure that your stop losses suit the trading strategy you’re pursuing. For example, a trend trading system may require having close stop losses, whereas this might not be the case for a mean-reverting strategy.

Stop losses should be adaptable to market changes and should be backtested and validated during the testing process. Conclusion: Trading plans are vital for trading success. They have many parts which should be carefully designed and tested.

We appreciate that contemplating all the above points can be challenging and time consuming, however you will become more confident in your trading as you will have in place a structured and improved trading plan.