Forex Trading System - Create Your Own in 4 Simple Steps

By Albert Schmidt

We are always on a look out for a best Forex trading system. What most new traders do not realize is that anyone can create his own trading system. Based on my experience I can say that a trading system I created for myself gave the best results. It is not a difficult task to create a system. All you need is a little experience with the charts. The next four steps can help you to create your own trading system.

1. Choose a currency pair and time frame that fits your trading style

First what you need to do is to pick a currency and time frame charts. Time frame needs to suit your trading style. If you trade part-time and look at your charts once a day then pick a daily charts. If you are a day trader and can continuously monitor your trades then pick 5-minute or 15-minute charts. It is very important since a system you are going to develop may not work for other currencies and other time frames. It is rare to find a universal trading system that would make good results for any currency pair and any time frame.

2. Pick parameters to generate buy-sell signals.

Now you need to pick some parameters that will generate buy and sell signals for you in your trading system. You may want to use certain indicators, pivot points, candlestick patterns or it can be some fundamental data. This is where your experience of observing the price action comes into play. Write down the rules of the signal. For example it can be something like "buy when price brakes above the upper Bollinger band; sell when price brakes bellow the lower Bollinger band". You need the rules for setting your stop-loss and take-profit levels as well

3. Back test the trading system

Now it's time to back test your system. You need to go as far back in time on the historical data of your chart. Now move forward one candle at a time and look at your parameters - indicators, candlestick patterns etc. Once your see buy or sell signal place a horizontal line at the price level you would enter the market. Then place horizontal lines at your stop-loss and take-profit levels. Continue to go one candle at a time. Once price hits one of the levels write down the result into a spreadsheet. If it was a gain you will write it with a positive sign if it was a loss you will write it with a negative sign. Do it at least 100 times. At the end calculate mathematical expectation of your system. If it is positive move to the next step if it is negative go back to the step number 2 and refine your parameters of buy and sell signals.

4. Paper trade your system.

Once you have the system with a positive mathematical expectation you need to forward test it to see how it performs in real time. Again take at least 100 trades in real time. Be patient. Market will always be there for you to trade on a live account. Once you have the positive mathematical expectation with the forward test results you are ready to trade your system on your live account.

Once you have some experience with constructing trading systems I promise you will be able to develop a system that will be the most profitable for you.

Albert Schmidt is a part-time currency trader. After quite a long time of struggle he learned to make consistent profit trading in Forex. Review a trading strategy he successfully uses in his trading Forex.