Choosing an instrument
Picking the instrument is already part of the analysis.
Choose an instrument by its behaviour and context rather than by the size of the payout.
Why not choose an instrument by a high payout alone?
Beginners choose an instrument by payout: wherever it is higher, that is where they trade. That is a mistake, because a high payout often sits where the market is less predictable or less liquid.
The working approach is the opposite: first find an instrument whose behaviour you understand, and only then look at whether the payout is acceptable.
- One or two instruments a month is enough
- Watch them every day at the same time
- Learn how the instrument moves in the morning and on the session overlap
- Avoid the moments important news comes out
- Check there is enough movement for the expiry you use
When you watch one instrument regularly, a sense of normal appears: which range is ordinary and which is not. That sense is what later shows you a situation is unusual.
Cycling through instruments looking for “somewhere something is visible” is not analysis but a hunt for a justification to enter. That search always succeeds and almost always loses.
Key takeaways
- An instrument is chosen by behaviour you understand, not by payout.
- One or two instruments give more than ten unfamiliar ones.
- Cycling through instruments hunting a signal is hunting a justification.
What people do
Jumping between instruments through a session. Each one has its own rhythm, and five minutes is not enough to judge it.
What works
Test yourself: name the typical candle range of your instrument without looking at the chart. If you cannot, it is too early to take a second one.
A practical example
Take EUR/USD as your main instrument for the next two weeks. Every day at the same hour, record one sentence in the journal: quiet market or accelerated.
After ten days you will have a base of observations of your own that no one else's review can replace.
Lesson 7 of 15 in “BINODEX START”