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Articles on emotions, rules and review in trading, with sources. No trade calls or market forecasts.
NewA winning trade isn’t always a good trade/Sleep, fatigue and trading decisions/How to bulk-import your past trades into Tiltnote with a CSV
Forex for Beginners32 lessons
Part 1First steps
Part 2Protecting yourself
Part 3Counting prices and profit
Part 4Margin and leverage
Part 5Orders
Part 6Decide your loss before you enter
Part 7Keeping records and reviewing
Trading psychologyStop losses, revenge trading, confidence
- Trading psychology: know the traps by situation, then check them in your recordsAfter a loss, after a win, any time: nine common thinking traps in one map, and how to spot yours with a journal.
- Trading journal guide: what to record, when to review, and what to countRecord, count, review, change one thing. Start with just three things in your first week, then build up to daily, weekly and monthly reviews.
- Anchoring bias in trading"I'll wait until it gets back to my entry." "It's cheap compared with the high." How the first number you see pulls your decisions. With sources.
- Confirmation bias in tradingThink it will rise, and you mostly see reasons it will rise. What research says, and how to check your own records.
- The gambler's fallacy in tradingFive losses in a row, so a win is due? What research says, real casino data, and how to check your records. With sources.
- The hot hand in tradingThree wins in a row, so you're on a roll? The original study, the study that challenged it, and how to check your records. With sources.
- The house money effect in tradingAfter a big win, do you raise your lot size because "it's only profit"? What research says, and what trading records show. With sources.
- Overconfidence and trading too muchHouseholds that traded most earned less after costs. The study linking overconfidence to trading, and how to check your own records.
- Why you break your own trading rules, and what a log can showYou know the rule, and still break it. Three things to log, and how to count them after a week.
- Why you move your stop loss, and what to check firstBefore you move your stop further away, check the new loss amount. How to count how often you move it.
- How to notice overtradingCount your trades and unplanned entries to notice overtrading. With a cost example and research.
IndicatorsHow they are calculated and read. No trade calls
- How 7 common indicators workWhat moving averages, RSI, MACD, Bollinger Bands and three more show, and how they are calculated.
- Why indicators lag, and what that means in sudden movesHow many bars a moving average lags, why signals arrive late, and why sudden moves leave indicators behind.
- SMA vs EMA: what is the difference?Same 20 periods, different lines. How SMA and EMA are calculated and weighted, with charts.
- Golden cross and death cross, explainedWhere a short moving average crosses a long one. What it means, and why crosses come late or flip back and forth.
- RSI explained: the math and what "overbought" meansRSI compares up moves with down moves. Why "overbought" above 70 does not necessarily mean price will fall, with charts.
- MACD explained: the math, the zero line and the signal lineMACD is the gap between two EMAs. Crossing zero is where the two EMAs cross. The math and the lag, with a chart.
- Bollinger Bands explained: the math, and a common mythThe middle is a moving average; the bands are 2 standard deviations away. Why touching a band is not always a reversal, with a chart.
- ATR explained: true range, and what ATR can and cannot tell youATR is the average size of a bar's move. Why it counts gaps, and why it does not show direction, with a chart.
- Stochastic oscillator explained: %K, %D, and the 80 and 20 linesThe stochastic shows where the latest close sits within the recent price range. The math and the 80/20 lines, with a chart.
- Ichimoku explained: the five lines, and why the cloud is drawn aheadFive lines look complicated, but each is simple to calculate. Why the cloud sits ahead of price, with a chart.
- Support and resistance explainedWhere falling price may stop, and where rising price may stop. Why lines differ by who draws them, and what research found.
- Why a great backtest can fail liveTry many settings and pick the best, and a rule with no real edge can look good by chance. Overfitting, with a chart.
OtherGlossary, trade history, prop firms and more
- A winning trade isn’t always a good trade: judge the decision, not just the resultReview trades in four boxes: rules kept or broken, win or loss. What outcome bias research can and cannot tell you.
- Sleep, fatigue and trading decisions: what research says and what your journal can showSleep and money research is mixed. What it can and cannot tell you, and how to count tired days in your own records.
- How to bulk-import your past trades into Tiltnote with a CSVExport your history, convert it, paste it in. The column format, common errors and fixes, and what to do if trades are imported twice.
- Drawdown and recovery mathA 50% loss needs a 100% gain to get back. The gain needed for each size of loss, in a table and a chart.
- Naming your emotions while trading: what research shows and what it doesn’tNaming emotions, trader emotions and results, writing about feelings: what each study can and cannot tell you.
- What retail trader loss statistics actually say: regulator and research numbers side by sideTen figures from regulators and research, with source, product, what was counted, period and the definition of a loss, plus how to read them.
- Why a backtest can show an edge that isn't thereForgotten costs, the order inside a bar, how many versions you tried, and rules added after the fact. Measure wrong and you see things that aren't there.
- Holding the same currency in several pairs? Totals by currency and by stop-lossDifferent pairs can still add up to one large position in one currency. Add your positions up by currency, and total the loss if every stop is hit.
- Daylight saving shifts forex hours: how to check the October and November 2026 clock changesEurope changes on October 25, the US and most of Canada on November 1. What moves in the week between, in ET and London time, and how to check your broker's server time.
- The FIFO rule for US forex accounts: how closing order worksUnder the US NFA rule, positions on the same pair are closed oldest first. The closing order and how to count P&L, with charts.
- How far can you trust your win rate?8 wins in 10 trades still leaves a range of about 49% to 94%. See how the range narrows as trades add up.
- Forex market hours over Christmas and New Year 2026-27Christmas and New Year's Day 2026-27 both fall on a Friday. When each country's holidays start and end in ET, London and Tokyo time, and how to check your broker's hours.
- What happens around news releases: wider spreads, slippage and negative balancesHow spreads widen around a release, how a stop-loss can fill worse, and how a negative balance is treated in different regions, with real cases and 3 charts.
- How to export and review your MT4/MT5 trade historyOpen your history, pick a period, save it, turn it into numbers. Based on the official help, for MT4 and MT5.
- Forex glossary for beginnersPips, lots, margin, swap and more, explained simply, with calculation examples.
- What daily drawdown and max drawdown mean at a prop firmDaily loss limit and max drawdown: where they are measured from, when they reset, and how they move, with number examples.
Updated 21 Oct 2026 · Run by Kenji Okumura, Representative, Tiltnote · About this site