Strategy library

Trading strategies, explained simply.

How does a breakout, a grid or a martingale EA really trade? Every strategy as an animation, with the case where it works and the case where it fails.

Behind almost every Expert Advisor sits one of a few designs. The name in the shop says little about it, the mechanics say a lot: when a program enters, where its stop sits and, above all, how it loses money.

Each page explains one design in plain words, shows it on a drawn price path (schematic, no market data) and lists the traces by which you recognise it in an EA’s trade log. There are no profit promises here: every strategy has market phases in which it loses.

Background: EA strategies compared →

All strategies

Risk structure

Holding time

Market phase

19 strategies

Breakout
Waits for a quiet phase and enters as soon as price breaks through its edge.
Holding time: Hours · Market phase: Trend, News
Stop per tradeLoss capped per trade
Trend following
Enters in the direction of an existing move and stays in until the signal turns.
Holding time: Hours, Days · Market phase: Trend
Stop per tradeLoss capped per trade
Scalping
Many very short trades with a small target, where spread and execution decide the result.
Holding time: Minutes · Market phase: Sideways
Stop per tradeLoss capped per trade
Grid trading
Buys again at fixed distances as price falls and closes everything together above the average price.
Holding time: Hours, Days · Market phase: Sideways
No fixed stopRisk sits in a basket
Martingale
Doubles the lot after every loss so that one win recovers all earlier losses.
Holding time: Hours · Market phase: Sideways
No fixed stopLot grows with losses
Mean reversion
Trades against stretches and waits for price to return to its mean.
Holding time: Hours · Market phase: Sideways
Stop per tradeLoss capped per trade
Range trading
Buys at a marked support, sells at resistance and gets out when the range breaks.
Holding time: Hours, Days · Market phase: Sideways
Stop per tradeLoss capped per trade
Hedging
Locks a losing position with an opposite one and freezes the loss instead of closing it.
Holding time: Days · Market phase: Sideways
No fixed stopRisk sits in a basket
Zone recovery
Opens alternating, larger opposite positions at the edges of a zone until price leaves it.
Holding time: Hours · Market phase: Trend
No fixed stopLot grows with losses
News trading
Places stop orders on both sides just before an economic release and trades the first spike.
Holding time: Minutes · Market phase: News
Stop per tradeLoss capped per trade
DCA (Cost-Averaging)
Buys the same amount at fixed time intervals, wherever price is, and so lowers the average entry price.
Holding time: Days · Market phase: Trend, Sideways
No fixed stopRisk sits in a basket
Swing trading
Buys a pullback in a trend, puts the stop below the last low and holds the position for several days.
Holding time: Days · Market phase: Trend
Stop per tradeLoss capped per trade
Momentum
Enters where price has recently moved the most and exits as soon as the move loses steam.
Holding time: Hours, Days · Market phase: Trend
Stop per tradeLoss capped per trade
Pairs trading
Trades the gap between two instruments that usually move alike and bets that it returns to normal.
Holding time: Days · Market phase: Sideways
Stop per tradeLoss capped per trade
Carry trade
Holds the currency with the higher interest rate and collects swap every day, as long as the exchange rate does not fall faster.
Holding time: Days · Market phase: Sideways, Trend
Stop per tradeLoss capped per trade
Arbitrage
Exploits price gaps between a fast price feed and a slower broker. Banned by most retail brokers.
Holding time: Minutes · Market phase: News, Trend
Stop per tradeLoss capped per trade
Price action
Reads signals straight from the candles, such as a pin bar at support, and trades without indicators.
Holding time: Hours, Days · Market phase: Sideways, Trend
Stop per tradeLoss capped per trade
Copy trading
Copies another account's trades automatically, always a moment later and slightly worse than the original.
Holding time: Minutes, Hours, Days · Market phase: Trend, Sideways
Stop per tradeLoss capped per trade
AI trading bots
A model learns rules from past prices and applies them live. It fails when the market behaves differently from its training data.
Holding time: Hours · Market phase: Trend
Stop per tradeLoss capped per trade

The glyph shows the price path of the winning case, the dots the entries. All schematic.