Knowing what to do is one thing, having the right tools to get the job done is another!

I am constantly asked how do you trade, how do you pick market sentiment, how do you pick your entry and exit levels ...etcetera. But one thing that traders forget about is not only planning the trade but making sure the plan is executed correctly. 

So for me, there are two components to successful trading:

1. Knowing what to do and when

2. Having the right tools to get your trade plan executed correctly.

If you don't have both of these two components then you're more than likely going to run into a bit of trouble, and that means capital depreciation.

Knowing what to do & when

Well, this is the easiest part of training someone, especially someone that hasn't already acquired a cartload of bad trading habits. 

I won't go into too much detail as I don't have all day to write this article but you can find out via our Pro Trader course.

Put simply though, it's a combination of Technical and Fundamental analysis, whereby the technicals give us our entry and exit levels and the Fundamentals give us currency direction. 

It's simple if you don't over complicate it!

Having the right tools to get your trade plan executed correctly

Now, this is the main reason for writing this article. I had another trade executed on EURUSD yesterday, whilst a few of our traders had the same idea but missed the entry execution. 

Now, this is just a case of not having the right tools. Let me explain.

MT4 is not good enough because the brokerage data (from just about every broker) is incomplete. 

Why?

It's simply because on the Monday open they don't turn on their pricing until about 4 hours after the real market has opened. As we all know 4 hours in the FX market is like an eon. So we can miss a whole bunch of bars/candles on your charts 'every week'. 

So what happens is you end up missing a piece of data each week that throws out your trendlines by 5 or more pips. 

Now that may not be a lot but it can be enough to miss out on getting into a great trade like the EURUSD yesterday.

Let me give you the example of EURUSD yesterday. Same charts, different trendline levels.

MT4 - EURUSD Trendline at the point of execution 1.2305

Now check out the professional platform the Bankers use:

Reuters - EURUSD Trendline at the point of execution 1.2300

There's a 5 point variance in the trendline at the point of entry & that's all it takes to miss the trading opportunity.

We use a tool that tracks the trendlines to make sure our trades are executed in the right spot all the time.

The tool is called Trendline Trader & it's the best tool a Professional trader can get because it saves us spending endless hours watching the market and managing our entry levels. 

Trendline Trader in Action

It tracks the trendlines and adjusts the entry level to make sure it's in the optimum position. BUT just having Trendline Trader is only one part as you can see above. 

You need to make sure your trendlines are correct in the first place. Because if they aren't it doesn't matter if you have Trendline Trader or not. 

What this comes back to is spending a little cash to get the right tools for your trading.

Professionals Use Professional Tools, it makes sense right?

As they say, if you want professional results, use professional tools..... or did I just make that up? Either way, it's correct and you need to think about upgrading your trading tools & resources if you are just using MT4 as your main source of technical analysis.

Now, this isn't just a plug for our product, far from it. There are loads of tools on the market that will assist with your trade execution.

As I mentioned Reuters is the best news/live data service you can get and you should have something along these lines because it's the same service the Bankers use and that's why it's important you have this tool or Bloomberg. 

As you can see from my example above I got into the trade and picked up 90 points, whilst other traders missed the entry by 5 pips and got nothing.

One winning trade can pay for your annual subscription to these sorts of tools, so don't waste your time with anything else that doesn't have live 'real market' feeds from the official Monday Open in Sydney to the official Friday Close in New York.  

Most importantly ask your Broker what time they turn on their pricing on Monday. If it's later than 5 am Sydney, it's too late!

In the end, you can know what you're doing but still miss out. Makes sure you're missing out for the right reasons and not the wrong ones.

Your trading results will be all the better for it!

Brad