5 min
Analysing a market trend means answering three questions: which direction, how strong, and what is scheduled that could change it. Different tools answer different parts, and using one for all three is the common mistake. Updated September 2026.
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Updated October 23, 2026
Analysing a market trend means answering three questions: which direction, how strong, and what is scheduled that could change it. Different tools answer different parts, and using one for all three is the common mistake. Updated September 2026.
Technical analysis platforms: charts, heat maps and summary boxes showing current relative strength
Paper trading simulators: testing a strategy without risking money
Candlestick analysis: reading individual periods and named patterns
Calendars for active traders: earnings and economic events that move prices
Calculators: pip value, position sizing and profitability, the tools that convert analysis into risk figures
Technical analysis studies historical price and volume to identify patterns and trends. The tools built on it summarise a large amount of market state quickly.
1. Technical Analysis Platforms
1. Technical Analysis Platforms
A currency heat map shows which currencies are strengthening and weakening against each other, and by how much. The grid displays the currency on the left compared against the currency along the top, so a positive percentage in a cell means the left-hand currency is stronger against that pair.
This answers a question a single chart cannot: whether a move in one pair reflects strength in one currency or weakness in the other. That distinction changes which pairs are worth trading.
A technical summary box performs the same function across asset classes, showing how major stock indices, bonds and commodities are moving. It reveals whether an index move is isolated or part of a broad risk shift across markets.
Simulators show how a strategy would have performed and how consistently a trader follows their own rules. The second point is usually the more revealing one.
Use real-time charts to identify potential setups
Define an entry price, a stop loss and a target before committing
Use a position sizing calculator to determine the correct size for your risk limit
Enter the figures into a profitability calculator to see the expected result
Record the outcome and repeat across a meaningful number of trades
The last step is the one most people skip. A strategy cannot be assessed on ten trades. Only a sustained record, including a losing run, shows whether an edge exists or whether the early results were chance.
Candlestick patterns describe what happened within and across individual periods, and they are the finest-grained of these tools.
3. Candlestick Pattern Analysis
A straightforward example is the inside day: one candle forms entirely within the high and low range of the previous one. It indicates contraction and reduced conviction, which often precedes an expansion in either direction.
From that single observation a full setup can be built: a breakout entry beyond the inside candle's range, a stop on the other side, and a target measured from the range width.
An earnings calendar lists scheduled company results. An earnings release is among the most volatile events a stock experiences, with prices capable of moving sharply in either direction within seconds.
4. Platforms For Active Traders
4. Platforms For Active Traders
An economic calendar performs the same role for macroeconomic releases: interest rate decisions, inflation prints and employment data, which move currencies and indices broadly rather than individually.
Both are as useful for avoiding trades as for taking them. Holding a leveraged position through a scheduled release means accepting a gap risk that no stop loss reliably protects against, because price can jump straight past the stop level.
A pip calculator converts price movement into money for forex positions, accounting for pair, position size and account currency.
A position sizing calculator works the other way: you set the stop loss, specify how much you are willing to lose, and it returns the correct position size. This is the correct order of operations, size derived from risk rather than chosen first.
A profitability calculator tabulates the potential profit and loss on a planned trade before it is placed, which makes the risk-to-reward ratio explicit rather than assumed.
Start with the broad view: heat map or summary box, to see where strength and weakness sit
Narrow to a chart and identify a setup with a defined entry and invalidation level
Check the calendar for scheduled events before committing
Calculate position size from your stop distance, not from how confident you feel
Record the trade and its reasoning, then review the losing ones specifically
See related trading guides and compare platforms and their tooling in our forex brokers section.
Relative strength across currencies at a glance, which tells you whether a pair is moving because one currency is strong or the other is weak.
A candle forming entirely within the previous candle's high and low range, indicating contraction and often preceding an expansion in either direction.
To know what is scheduled. Holding a leveraged position through a release means accepting gap risk that a stop loss may not protect against.
Takes your stop distance and maximum acceptable loss, and returns the correct position size. Size should be derived from risk, not chosen first.
Enough to include a losing run. Ten trades prove nothing, and early results are frequently chance rather than edge.
5. Strategy Testing And Development Tools
The position sizing calculator. Analysis determines whether to trade, position sizing determines whether a losing run ends the account.
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