Traders utilizing technical analysis make it their business to devise structured trading methods known colloquially as -systems.- Traditionally, a system is composed of a signal and a filter. The signal can derive from a single indicator or from several working together, while the filter is generally a lone indicator. New traders can, however, run into trouble when they build their first systems. The problem, which is two-fold, stems from overcomplication.
New traders often begin their journey lurking on Forex forums and utilizing free charting programs such as MetaTrader. While MetaTrader is a solid platform, the sheer number of free indicators available for it can overwhelm. Newcomers may find themselves fiddling with different indicators for months, switching from one to another whenever they make a series of bad trades.
Worse, this bounty of indicators makes it easy to cram the MetaTrader window full of them on the erroneous assumption that -more is better.- As a result of this constant experimentation and over-stuffing, novice traders never learn the value of getting a proposed system down in writing and testing it exclusively for at least six months, which is the only way the trader can actually tell if they can utilize the system profitably.