This content is provided in support of the Safety in the Market (SITM) module for Your SOFTWARE and may not be applicable to your package. For more information, go to the Modules topic of this help.
Trading Plans are based on David Bowden's ABC Trading Theories described in his Safety in the Market publications, first in the Smarter Starter Pack and, more comprehensively, in the Number One Trading Plan.
In those books, David Bowden describes how the various ABC points and trading levels are related, how they are calculated and how to use them to trade successfully.
The software uses these theories in many areas to identify ABC points. For instance the ABC Pressure Points drawing tool will plot trading levels for a user defined ABC formation, and the ABC Points - Long or Short chart Hi-Lite will automatically identify and tag ABC formations on any price chart. ABC criteria can also be used to set alerts and in formulating Hi-Lites based search criteria for market scanning.
All of these tools help users to identify ABC price formations.
To exploit these trading opportunities, David Bowden developed the ABC Trading Plan format, and now Your SOFTWARE integrates these trading plans with its other ABC functionality using the Trading Plan Wizard.
The Trading Plan Wizard contains all the trading information required to enter, manage and exit ABC trades. It is also integrated with the Swing Exports reporting functions so that you can maintain records and review all of your trades.
The Trading Plan Wizard has six sequential pages.
A short description of each is provided below, together with a link to a more detailed Help topic.
The Wizard opens with its first work page populated with the details of the ABC Trade formation that the trade will be based on.
The user selects which trade formation will be the basis for the Trade. This can be done in a number of ways, the easiest being the ABC Hi-Lites chart tool.
For more information on selecting the ABC formation, and an explanation of the contents of initial page, go to the ABC Trade Details topic.
Once a user is satisfied that the selected ABC Trade offers sufficient profit opportunities, the user proceeds to the second work page, Entry Plan Details, and enters the details of the proposed transaction.
For a full description of this page, go to the ABC Trade Entry topic.
The Trading Plan Wizard is not just a tool to help users make one trade. It is an integrated feature which allows users to monitor, review and, over time, to improve their trading performance.
Three work pages on the Wizard help in monitoring the results of trades and facilitate performance improvement.
The Pre-Trade Diary work page is the first of the three pages in the Wizard devoted to monitoring and reporting on the trade, the Post-Trade and Summary work pages are the others.
Go to the Monitor ABC Trading topic for a full description of these work pages and their interaction.
Once a trade is entered, its progress through the pressure points contained in the Trade Details work page can be monitored and trailing stop orders placed if this is part of the user's strategy.
Alternatively, the user can exit at a predetermined price level.
In either situation, when the exit has been made, the details can be entered into the Wizard on the Liquidation Plan work page. Details entered on this page are combined with the other pages to populate the Summary work page, see below.
For a full description of this page, go to the Liquidation Plan topic.
The Post-Trade Diary tabbed page is the second of three pages in the Wizard devoted to monitoring and reporting on the trade, go to the Monitor ABC Trading topic for a full description of these work pages and their interaction.
The Summary work page contains details on the Status (Active/Completed) of the trade, the overall Performance and the net Profit/Loss of the trade.
This is the final work page associated with trade monitoring and performance improvement. Together with the other monitoring pages and the trade details entered on other pages, statistical reports can be generated that can help users improve their overall trading performance.
For more information on the Summary work page and the other pages that help monitor the trade and overall performance, go to the Monitor ABC Trading topic.