Quick Start Guide

1. Introduction

Forex Strategy Builder is a complete system for creating and testing Forex trading strategies.

It provides an easy way of building strategies by making various combinations of technical indicators. All parameters and logic can be selected from menus, so that you do not have to write formulas and scripts.

It gives you detailed charts and statistics, and automatic journals show all orders and positions as well as the changes of your virtual bank account.

Even though FSB deals with forex trading, it is not a product aimed at the commercial market. It was developed with the sole purpose to be useful and practical tool to test different trading systems. Forex Strategy Builder is a valuable tool and guide to deeper understanding of technical analysis.

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2. More information

You can find additional information in the online forex help system or by browsing the forum topics. In the library section, there are links to useful articles such as FAQ, Forex glossary and others.

For any questions, use the forex forum. We will answer your questions with pleasure.

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3. Installation

You can download the program for free. The installation is very easy.

FSB uses the latest Microsoft technology for software development - .NET Framework v2.0. Do not worry if it is the first time you have heard about it. It is enough to know that the Framework is one of the free updates of Microsoft. Spend a few minutes to install it and you can be sure that Forex Strategy Builder will work smoothly on your computer.

Visit our download page. There is a script there that will check your computer automatically. To do that, you have to use Internet Explorer. The script does not work with Firefox or Opera browsers. If the script finds the correct version of the framework, you can download the program. It will work perfectly.
In case it does not find the correct .NET Framework, download the framework from the provided link.

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4. Basic logic

Forex Strategy Builder creates a full simulation of the trading process modeling the transactions between the trader and the broker. Its internal math model calculates the strategy, creates signals and sends orders similar to those used by real traders on the real market. Of course, all of this happens using the historical rates provided in the data directory and affects your virtual bank account. All transactions, statistics and orders are shown in the Journal or in the various stats windows of the program, enabling you to see the trading process in detail.

Forex Strategy Builder makes strategy building even simpler because you need to think about long position's logic only (the program applies the mirror logic for the short positions automatically).

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5. The market

FSB uses historical forex rates to perform a reliable back-test on different markets and data periods. The data are stored on your computer into the Forex Strategy Builder/Data folder. The program does not update the history data automatically. You can download the latest Fx rates from our website. If you want, you can use data from your broker, or edit the data files manually. You can find more information in the forum or in the online docs.

From the menus, you can choose the instrument symbol and the time frame. The two additional menus allow you to set the spread and your broker's swap numbers.
In the screenshot, shown above, we have Euro - US dollar rates with one day, spread (bid-ask difference) four pips and a rollover fee (the fee you pay when you transfer a position overnight to the next business day per lot) one pip.

In the market stats window you can see the most important statistics about the market data.

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6. Make a strategy

Every strategy you create consists of two major parts: Open strategy (green/blue slots) and Close strategy (red/pink slots).

The role of the Open strategy is to determine the time and the price of entering the market (opening/adding position). To do so you need to choose some kind of indicator that gives you an exact price in the first green slot called "Opening point of the position". Just click on it and a menu will appear:

On the list to your left you can see all the indicators that can be used as an opening point of your strategy (in this example we have selected "Enter the market at the beginning of the bar" logic - meaning that we will only open at the bar opening price). If you choose different indicator you will use different price for entering position and will have different parameters to adjust. You can also see your virtual account balance in pips in the bottom right part of the window showing whether you gain or lose from the current strategy (this part is included in all slot windows and is recalculated instantaneously when you change parameters or logic). We enter only the long position's logic and FSB creates mirror logic for the short position. In both cases in the shown example, we will open a position at the beginning of the bar regardless of the direction of trade (long or short).

This means that we will open a long position when the price reaches the upper band (and FSB will apply the mirror logic automatically - meaning that it will open a short position when the price reaches the lower band.

However selecting an "Opening point of the position" doesn't mean that we'll always enter the market at that point. The decision to enter or not is determined by the next slot(s) called "Opening logic conditions". To select one, just click on that slot and a dialogue box, similar to the previous one, will appear. In order to open a position all of the "Opening logic conditions" must be satisfied and the price must be at the "Opening point of the position".

It means that we will have a signal for opening a long position when the MACD line crosses the zero line upward (indicator's condition is satisfied) and we will open it at the beginning of the bar. FSB creates the short position's entry logic automatically based on your long position logic. As in the previous example, this means that we will open short position when the MACD line crosses the zero line downward. The program acts the same way with all the opening logic conditions, thus making strategy building much easier.

"Closing point of the position" is the red slot. It determines the price of closing a previously opened position. To change its logic, just click on it and a dialogue box will appear:

This means that we will close the position at the end of the bar. However, this works only when we don't have "Closing logic conditions" selected (the pink slot(s) at the bottom). If you want to use those conditions, you can read more in trhe online help.

At the top of the slots you see two dropdown menus and three orange buttons. The buttons change only the look of the slots in the main window, making them more or less detailed.

The two dropdown menus have a more important function - they determine the behavior of the strategy when we have additional signals while we are in an open position.

From the first menu, we can choose what to do if we have an additional signal in the same direction as our current open position. We can either add another lot to the position or do nothing. Check the strategy page for a more detailed explanation.

The second menu acts in the same way but when we receive a signal in the opposite direction. We can do nothing, reduce, reverse or close the current position.

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7. Charts

To the left and right of the main window you can see two basic charts showing the price / indicators and the balance / equity of the virtual account. If you want to enlarge them and receive more detailed information just click on them and a pop-up window will appear with the full chart that can also be zoomed in and out (pretty useful ha!).

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