Education
215 articles
Market Readiness Score: How do you tell if conditions favor your trade before you enter?
Direction is only half the trade. Before you ask where price is going, ask whether the market is even ready to move — and learn the five factors that answer it.
Inducement vs liquidity sweep vs stop hunt: is it the same move?
Inducement is the level, a sweep the event, a stop hunt the story. In five years of our data, price took yesterday's high in half of all sessions and came back in half of those.
Raw spread vs standard account: which one is actually cheaper?
A raw account charges a commission; a standard one builds its cost into the spread. The cheaper one depends on the pair: the same $7 is 0.70 pips on EUR/USD and 1.10 on USD/JPY.
ISM vs S&P Global PMI: why can two surveys of the same month disagree?
ISM and S&P Global both survey US purchasing managers, but they weight the answers differently and can disagree. September 2026 showed it, and an early estimate moved EUR/USD most.
ADP vs NFP vs jobless claims: which jobs number moves the dollar?
ADP, nonfarm payrolls and jobless claims land in the same week and often disagree. Here is what each one counts, whether ADP predicts payrolls, and which one moves the dollar.
Fed hike odds vs the dot plot vs Fed guidance: three reads of the same decision
Fed funds futures, the dot plot and Fed speeches answer the same question in different ways. We explain what each one measures and what they said about October.
Fundamental vs technical vs sentiment analysis: three ways to read the same move
Fundamental, technical and sentiment analysis answer different questions. We read one real session through all three: EUR/USD on US inflation day.
Currency heatmap: how do you read each pair's risk before you enter?
Three questions decide whether an entry starts with a fair chance. A heatmap answers them per pair: scheduled releases, movement against normal and the crowded side.
Hedging vs netting in MT5: two account modes, and what a lock really costs
MT5 accounts count positions by netting or by hedging. What an opposite order does on each, and why a lock freezes a loss without ever closing it.
Risk-on vs risk-off: what each one really does in forex
Risk-on and risk-off side by side, checked against 188 sessions of 2026: the textbook pattern was rare, and the worst AUD/JPY days were often about the yen.
Order block vs breaker block vs mitigation block: does the sweep matter?
One candle, three outcomes: an order block holds, fails after a liquidity sweep or fails without one. What separates them, and whether the sweep matters in our data.
FVG vs imbalance vs liquidity void: what separates them and what our data shows
An FVG is one type of imbalance and a liquidity void can contain several. What separates them, and how often FVGs and voids really get filled on five years of hourly data.
Standard vs mini vs micro lot: what 1.00, 0.10 and 0.01 really mean
A lot is a block of the base currency: 100,000, 10,000 or 1,000 units. What 1.00, 0.10 and 0.01 mean on a MetaTrader ticket, and what each does to a small account.
Headline vs core inflation: which one moves the currency?
Why does the market often react more to core inflation than to headline? What does each one leave out, why do central banks watch core, and how far apart did they run in 2026?
VWAP vs OBV vs volume profile: what each one measures on a forex chart
VWAP, OBV and volume profile on ticks: on 84 days of EUR/USD, ticks barely moved VWAP, the POC sometimes jumped, and OBV went against price one day in five.
How much does forex trade a day? The BIS figure and what it does not mean
$9.5 trillion a day in April 2025, by the BIS's final count. Under a third of it is spot, the biggest slice is funding and hedging, and the month itself was unusual.
OTC vs exchange: how is spot forex different from currency futures?
The same euro trades in two places: over the counter and on an exchange. Who is on the other side, who sets the price, and why does the futures quote not match spot?
What is OPEC, and how do its decisions reach your currency pairs?
OPEC sets how much oil its members pump. How does that decision end up in USD/CAD, and what should a forex trader watch when OPEC+ meets?
