WickCheck / Trading school / Learning corner / Beginner
Beginner Level 1 of 3
Start here. How charts, sessions and risk work, what a backtest is, and the words every trader uses.
Your path: 7 lessons in order
- What a backtest is, and what it is notThe basics in five minutes: rules, data, costs and the limits of testing the past.
- R, risk per trade and drawdown in plain wordsHow position size, R-multiples and drawdown fit together.
- How costs quietly eat small edgesSpread, commission and slippage explained, and why tight stops make them worse.
- Trading sessions and killzones: times, what happens in each, and how to test themAsian, London and New York sessions and the ICT killzones, with exact times in New York and London time, daylight saving notes and test rules.
- How to read your WickCheck resultsWhat each number means and the order to look at them in.
- Moving average crossover strategiesGolden cross, EMA crosses and why filters matter.
- Turtle trading and the 20-day breakoutThe classic trend-following rule set, simplified.
Words to know at this level
58 terms. Open any of them for a picture, how to spot it and a rule you can test.
Market structureThe pattern of swing highs and swing lows that shows whether price is trending up, trending down or ranging.Swing high and swing lowA swing high is a candle high with lower highs on both sides; a swing low is a candle low with higher lows on both sides.LiquidityIn ICT and SMC, the resting orders (mostly stop losses and breakout entries) that sit beyond obvious highs and lows.Asian sessionThe Tokyo and Sydney part of the trading day, roughly 19:00 to 04:00 New York time (00:00 to 09:00 London time). Usually the quietest session.London sessionThe European trading session, 08:00 to 16:30 London time (03:00 to 11:30 New York time), the most liquid session for forex.New York sessionThe US session, roughly 08:00 to 17:00 New York time, with the biggest moves around the 09:30 stock market open and US data releases.New York PM session13:30 to 16:00 New York time (18:30 to 21:00 London time), the afternoon window for US indices into the stock market close.Time zones for traders (UTC, GMT, New York, London) (UTC)Every session, killzone and news release is tied to a clock. Pick one time zone for your chart and your rules, and convert everything else to it.Broker server time (chart time)The clock your broker's platform uses for candles. Many forex brokers use New York close + 7 (UTC+2 in winter, UTC+3 in summer) so that each week has exactly five daily candles.Previous day high and low (PDH / PDL)Yesterday's high and low, two of the most watched liquidity levels of the trading day.Stop loss (SL)The price where a losing trade is closed to cap the loss at a planned amount.R and R-multiple (R)R is the amount you risk on a trade. A result of +2R means you made twice what you risked; -1R means you lost what you risked.Risk to reward (RR)How far the target is compared with the stop. A 1:2 trade risks 1 to make 2.Win rateThe share of trades that make money.Drawdown (DD)The fall from an account's peak to its lowest point before a new peak. Max drawdown is the worst one.Breakeven stop (BE)Moving the stop to the entry price once a trade is in profit, so it can no longer lose.Partial profitsClosing part of a position at a first target and letting the rest run.Trailing stopA stop that follows price as the trade moves in your favour, locking in more profit.BacktestRunning a strategy's exact rules over historical data to see how it would have performed.Spread, commission and slippageThe costs paid on every trade: the bid–ask spread, broker commission, and the difference between the price you wanted and the price you got.PipThe standard unit of price change in forex: 0.0001 on most pairs, 0.01 on yen pairs.Lot sizeHow big a position is. One standard lot in forex is 100,000 units of the base currency.Position sizingChoosing the trade size so a stop-out costs a fixed amount, usually a small % of the account.LeverageBorrowed buying power: 1:30 leverage lets $1,000 control a $30,000 position.MarginThe money a broker sets aside from your account to keep a leveraged position open.Bid and askThe bid is the price you can sell at, the ask the price you can buy at. The gap between them is the spread.Long and shortLong means buying to profit from a rise; short means selling to profit from a fall.Market orderAn order filled straight away at the best available price.Limit orderAn order to buy below or sell above the current price, filled only at your price or better.Stop orderAn order to buy above or sell below the current price, used to enter breakouts or to exit with a stop loss.TimeframeHow much time one candle covers: 1 minute, 15 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day and so on.TrendA market making higher highs and higher lows (uptrend) or lower highs and lower lows (downtrend).RangeSideways price between a clear high and low, with no trend.Support and resistancePrices where buying (support) or selling (resistance) showed up before.Trading planYour written rules: what you trade, when, how you enter, exit and size, and when you stop for the day.Trade journalA record of every trade with the reason, screenshots, result in R and how you felt.FOMO (Fear of missing out)Jumping into a move late because it is running without you.Revenge tradingTaking quick, bigger trades to win back a loss.CandlestickOne bar of price: open, high, low and close for a period of time.Wick (Shadow)The thin part of a candle above or below the body, showing prices that were reached but rejected.Engulfing candleA candle whose body fully covers the previous candle's body, in the opposite colour.Pin bar (Hammer / shooting star)A candle with a small body and one long wick, showing a sharp rejection.DojiA candle that opens and closes at almost the same price, showing indecision.Moving average (SMA / EMA)The average closing price over the last N candles, drawn as a line.RSI (Relative Strength Index)A 0–100 oscillator that compares recent gains with recent losses.Bollinger bandsA moving average with bands two standard deviations above and below it.Fibonacci retracement (Fib)Lines at 23.6, 38.2, 50, 61.8 and 78.6% of a swing, used to plan pullback entries.Economic calendarThe schedule of data releases and central bank decisions that move markets.Non-farm payrolls (NFP)The US jobs report, usually the first Friday of the month at 08:30 New York time.CPI (Consumer Price Index)The main inflation number. Higher than expected usually means higher rates for longer.FOMC rate decision (FOMC)The US Federal Reserve's interest rate decision, eight times a year at 14:00 New York time.High-impact news (Red folder news)Releases that historically cause large, fast moves.Prop firm (Proprietary trading firm)A company that lets you trade its capital after you pass an evaluation, in return for a share of profits.Prop challenge (Evaluation)The test you pass to get a funded account, usually a profit target with loss limits.Daily loss limit (Daily drawdown)The most you can lose in one day before the account fails, often 4–5%.Maximum loss limit (Max drawdown)The total loss allowed from the starting balance, often 8–10%.Funded accountThe account you trade after passing a challenge, sharing profits with the firm.Equity curveYour account balance plotted trade by trade.
Education only, not financial advice. Definitions vary between teachers; these are ours, written for clarity.