Blog topics
Every article belongs to one topic. Pick a topic, then the task you have right now.
TradingView Guides
All our TradingView guides in one place: plans and pricing, alternatives, brokers, backtesting and Pine Script. Written by a paying user since 2017.
- Choose a plan
- Learn the basics
- Save on a plan
- Practice without risk
- Compare platforms
- Try free order flow
- Connect a broker
- Connect an AI assistant
- Test a strategy
- Plan around economic data
- Write an indicator
- Use the AI Copilot
- Filter stocks with the screener
- Read volume inside each bar
- Read the market on a heatmap
Central Bank Decisions for Traders
Fed, ECB, Bank of Japan, Bank of England, SNB, Bank of Canada and RBA rate decisions for traders: meeting dates, times, latest decisions, market reaction.
Chart Techniques for Traders
How Karsten Kagels reads charts: price action, support and resistance, breakouts, trendlines and Fibonacci, turned into a trade plan with real examples.
- Draw key levels
- Read price action
- Read candlestick charts
- Know candlestick patterns
- Combine timeframes
- Trade pullbacks
- Trade sideways ranges
- Read chart formations
- Trade breakouts
- Draw and trade trendlines
- Use Fibonacci levels
- Set Fibonacci targets
- Trade gaps
- Calculate pivot points
- Swing trade
- Identify market stages
- Screen for growth leaders
- Read Wyckoff ranges
- Trade Darvas boxes
- Count Elliott waves
- Understand Smart Money Concepts
- Understand ICT trading
- Trade order blocks
- Trade fair value gaps
- Trade inverse fair value gaps
- Trade failed breakouts with Turtle Soup
- Read a break of structure
- Read a change of character
- Read a market structure shift
- Draw supply and demand zones
- Read liquidity sweeps
- Interpret volume
Technical Indicator Guides
How popular trading indicators are calculated, how to read their signals and what our own tests on long price histories show about them.
- Judge a golden cross
- Judge a death cross
- Judge a Hindenburg Omen
- Use moving averages
- Trail a stop with the Supertrend
- Read the Ichimoku Cloud
- Measure trend strength with the ADX
- Read the RSI
- Compare a stock with the market
- Read volatility with Bollinger Bands
- Trade reversals at the bands in a range
- Set stops with the ATR
- Trade Donchian breakouts
- Read the Stochastic
- Judge a divergence
- Read the MACD
- Use VWAP
Trading Equipment Guides
How to choose a trading laptop, monitors, a desktop computer and the rest of your trading setup for the software you use, without wasted money.
Markets and Brokers for Traders
How brokers and markets work behind your orders: an Interactive Brokers review, how market makers set your price, what the MOVE index shows and which research tool helps you pick stocks.
- Open your first account
- Choose a broker
- Check an offshore broker
- Check CopyX
- Understand your price
- Read bond market stress
- Read market sentiment
- Trade an index CFD
- Size an index future
- Read the futures curve
- Choose a silver future
- Read the chip sector
- Read the biotech sector
- Read the transport sector
- Research stocks
- Use the free news portal
- Find real AI revenue
- Compare AI data center suppliers
- Follow an IPO
- Invest in OpenAI before the IPO
- Understand a stock split
- Value a stock
- Value a new listing
Algo Trading Guides
How algorithmic trading works: turning a strategy into code, trading bots and Expert Advisors, platforms and languages, risks and US rules.
Backtesting Guides
How to backtest a trading strategy by hand or automatically: the steps of a clean test, the metrics that matter, common mistakes and forward testing.
Trade Execution and Order Management
Place, protect and close your trades: US order types, stop and limit orders, OCO and bracket orders, partial fills and what brokers actually document.
Risk Management and Trading Psychology
How much to risk per trade, how to stay disciplined and how to keep a trading journal: position sizing, stops, trading psychology and journal software reviews.
Prop Trading Guides
Reviews of futures and crypto prop trading firms and a guide to the drawdown math: how their tests work, what they really cost, how payouts work and which rules change after you pass.
Prediction Markets Guides
How prediction markets and event contracts work, where Kalshi, Polymarket and IBKR are legal, what they cost and what traders can read from their prices.
Market Hours and Trading Sessions
When markets trade: CME futures hours, the Asian, London and New York sessions, RTH and ETH, holidays and daylight saving, in ET and London time.
Crypto Guides
Guides for buying and trading crypto in Europe: licensed exchanges, what they really cost and what the EU crypto law MiCA protects.
Famous Traders and Trading Championships
The best-known traders in market history and the real-money trading championships, with documented numbers instead of legends.
- See who really performed best
- Meet the quant pioneer
- Understand trading championships
- Meet the record holder
- Meet the Prince of the Pit
- Learn the Turtle rules
- Understand the stock contest
- Read the classic interviews
- Meet the oldest legend
- Meet the first Market Wizard
- Meet the trend-following pioneer
- Learn short-term setups
- Trade the opening range
- Understand Buffett's investing approach
- Meet the 1987 crash trader
- Learn the SEPA method
- Understand All Weather
Trading Book Guides
Which trading books to read first and what to read next, chosen by a trader since 1980, with the reader each book suits and where it stops.
Order Flow and Volume Analysis Guides
How traded volume, liquidity and order execution show up in market data, what order flow tools measure and where their limits are.
Trading Education Guides
How to learn trading: what to learn and practise first, and how to judge courses, live shows and trading rooms before you pay.
- Choose a learning path
- Follow a learning sequence
- Judge a market expert
- Compare a paid course
- Compare day trading courses
- Learn from free live calls
- Check Market Rebellion
- Check Larry Connors
- Check SMB Capital
- Check Warrior Trading
- Check Miles Deutscher
- Check TJR and the free Boot Camp
- Check Online Trading Academy
- Check Rockwell Trading
- Judge a trading education provider
Karsten's Picks: Trading Resources I Like
Websites, channels and tools for traders that Karsten Kagels finds useful, collected from time to time, each with a short note on what it offers.
- Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities
- Verified Investing (Gareth Soloway)
- Trading Setups Review
- FRED (St. Louis Fed)
- CFTC Commitments of Traders
- Finviz
- Forex Factory calendar
- CME Group Education
- Peter Brandt (Factor Trading)
- TraderFeed (Brett Steenbarger)
- Chat With Traders
- Top Traders Unplugged
- VerrilloTrading
Market Data and Research Tools
How financial terminals, data feeds and research platforms compare: Bloomberg, LSEG Workspace, FactSet and the cheaper tools private investors use.
Stocks and Commodities
Commodity and cyclical stocks compared: which silver, gold, oil and chip companies produce what, at which costs, and how their shares move with their cycle.
Trading Software Guides
Which trading software you need by task: charts, stock research, seasonality, order flow, execution, backtesting and journals, with dated US dollar costs.
AI Trading Guides
Practical AI trading: using language models and machine learning for research, chart analysis and strategy coding, with the checks to apply before you trust the output.
Day Trading Guides
Day trading explained: markets, sessions, costs, the current US account rules, what studies say, and three strategies compared with real SPY cases.
Options Trading Guides
Options for traders: the basics of calls and puts, how dealer hedging moves prices, what options data shows and where it stops, with sources and prices checked at the provider.