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Market Skill-Builder
Financial Markets & Financial Software The Skill-Builder for Financial Trading - Financial Training Software.

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Functional Overview, The Program:

1) Displays synchronised price-charts of real historical data in three time-frames (Long, Medium, Short-term.

Notes:

• The above charts show Hourly, 5-Minute and 1-Minute data for intra-day trading practise. Position-traders can use Monthly, Weekly, Daily data.
• The above charts fit a 640X480 display : they are fully customisable (No of periods per chart, Height, Width) to fit different screen sizes and individual preferences.
• The horizontal black and red lines relate to trading-order levels and are explained below.

2) Displays up to three associated Indicator charts ("Stochastics" shown here).

3) Displays the trading-results and status of open trading-orders in the "Statistics Window", which doubles as a Toolbar.

Notes:

• Clicking within the red or black area triggers the relevant order-entry procedure.

• Clicking on or advances the display in time by one or five periods.

• Display options are selected from the blue-background tool-bar along the bottom. To see an animated display showing the program switching between three alternative layouts (71kb gif) :

• The White-Background area diplays price and trading results as follows (Note: When MSB is open, clicking on any of these numbers displays details of its computation):

  : The latest price / Number of points up or down compared to the previous period.

  : The open position brought forward from the previous period / the net change resulting from orders just executed / The open position carried forward to the next period / the nominal value of the open position.

  : Draw-Down (The amount by which the current net equity is less than its previous maximum : keeping this number small is one of the primary objectives of the trader) / Maximum draw-down to date.

  : Nominal value of the open position divided by current equity.

  : Gross unrealised profit / loss on the current open position "marked to market".

  : Gross realised profit / loss on closed positions.

  : Commissions paid.

  : Total profit / loss to date after commissions.

4) Accepts trading-orders via easy-to-use Dialog-Boxes: When the Buy-Limit tool is clicked, or B is pressed, the Order-Entry Dialog-Box is displayed:

Order quantity / price can either be selected from drop-down lists (here the trader is selecting a price) or - Typed by those who prefer keyboard operation, Entering B20(tab-key)7505(enter-key) will open the dialog-box and enter this order (this method is, in fact quicker for experienced users).

5) Also displays Trading results and open-order status graphically.

The horizontal lines are the levels at which limit and Stop orders were placed by the trader. The two limit orders have been hit (executed), but not the stops. The middle chart shows profit / loss (Blue line) and Draw-Down as they evolve (Draw-Down is the amount by which the net profit at any given moment is less than its previous maximum). The objective of any serious trader is to achieve a steadily rising profit-curve while minimising intermediate draw-downs. The bottom chart is a histogram showing the number of open contracts long or short. In this example the trader entered a limit order to go short at 7550, with a reverse stop at 7565, risking 15 points and planning to go long if the market broke above its most recent short-term high. When the first order was hit, he entered an order to take profits and reverse to long at 7535, again with a stop - this time below the market at 7515.

At the end of the trading file, the program automatically offers to switch to a full-screen display showing the Bar-Charts (with their history of order-entry levels), the Profit and Draw-Down and the Open position Charts. The trader can then admire the perspicacity with which he effortlessly accumulated his profit or (more likely, regrettably) see exactly where he went wrong as well as what he did right - and learn for the future. Practise makes perfect, as they say. This is the feature which led "Futures Magazine" to award 9/10 to Market Skill-Builder for educational value.

6) Other Features.

• The program repeats each order back and requests Order-Confirmation prior to its entry (optional).
• When an order is filled (executed), an alert is displayed showing details of previous position / execution / new position (also optional).
• For intra-day trading a one-minute "order-effectiveness" delay to simulate phone-time is optional.
• Commission and Slippage (ie a points penalty to account for order execution inefficiency & the bid/offer spread) are applied to each order filled.
• The program imposes Position Limits and automatically enters orders to cut back on excessive positions. (Position limits are based on a "Leverage" parameter which is user-defined).
• Vertical Chart-Scales are automatically adjusted to fit the range of the data displayed.

Or skip to : Details of the Menu and Commands :