Advanced module
Technical analysis II: indicators, systems & risk
Indicators are just arithmetic performed on price — useful lenses for seeing structure, never crystal balls. The real edge isn't a magic setting; it's a defined process and ruthless risk control.
1Indicators
What the popular indicators actually compute, what they can and can't tell you, and why every one of them is a derivative of price that arrives a step late.
- 1
Moving averages: the trend in one line
SMA versus EMA, what a 50/200-day crossover really signals, dynamic support and resistance, and the lag you can never fully escape.
13 min read
- 2
Momentum: RSI and MACD, used honestly
What RSI actually measures, why 'overbought' misleads in a trend, divergence, MACD as two moving averages in a trench coat, and why every indicator is a derivative of price.
14 min read
- 3
Bollinger Bands, ATR and reading volatility
Standard-deviation bands, the squeeze and expansion cycle, ATR for sizing stops, and why volatility is a regime to respect rather than a signal to trade.
13 min read
2Building a system
How a vague idea becomes a set of rules you can actually follow and test — and all the ways a backtest will quietly lie to you about whether that system works.
- 4
Turning an idea into a rules-based system
Entry, exit, sizing and risk rules; mechanical versus discretionary; expectancy as the one equation that matters; and why an edge must be defined before it can exist.
14 min read
- 5
Backtesting and the many ways it lies to you
Lookahead and survivorship bias, overfitting, in-sample versus out-of-sample, costs and slippage, and why a flawless backtest is a warning sign rather than a triumph.
14 min read
3Execution & risk
Where the rubber meets the road: where to actually put a stop, how to size from it, and the psychology and arithmetic that decide whether you survive long enough for any edge to matter.
- 6
Entries, exits and where to put a stop
Structure- and ATR-based stops instead of round numbers, R-multiples, trailing stops, sizing from stop distance, and the asymmetry that lets you be wrong often and still win.
14 min read
- 7
Trading psychology and the risk of ruin
Discipline over prediction, the unforgiving math of over-leverage and ruin, revenge trading, why most retail F&O traders lose, and the quiet case for sizing small.
14 min read