Study trading-system rulebooks and historical setups

View full-size screenshot ↗

Understand the page's role#

Open Trading systems under Automate. The catalog is supplied by installed plugins: complete rulebooks, example detectors and companion chart/screener/workspace assets appear when their plugin provides them. There is no fixed public count of systems. An absent descriptor is not replaced with an invented fallback rulebook.

The page is NOT AUTO-TRADING. A selected setup is a SETUP PLAN — NOT AN ORDER. Reading a rulebook, opening a chart template or selecting a historical marker does not submit an order, choose a position size or establish a strategy's profitability. Actual automated execution is configured separately in Strategies.

Select and read a rulebook#

1. Open System Rulebooks or the Trading systems item.
2. Search the catalog and optionally group By plugin.
3. Select a system and read its summary, defaults and supported markets.
4. Read What to read, Invalidation / no-trade, Plan levels & risk and Limitations.
5. Inspect the actual parameters and session assumptions before opening examples.
6. Use the rule checklist as a record of what the system requires, not a substitute for understanding its conditions.

A system can be provided as guide/template assets without an example detector. In that case the page offers its companions rather than inventing historical trades. Catalog reload refreshes plugin-provided content; it does not download arbitrary missing plugins or grant permissions.

Choose market and timeframe#

Use Symbol and Timeframe in the market bar. The shared picker supports the available source catalog rather than constraining you to a small illustrated symbol list. Search and choose the exact instrument/provider identity. Selecting a market outside a system's intended domain is allowed in some workflows but is not evidence that its rules have been validated there.

For example, compare a plugin's FX example on EURUSD with a metals or equity-index chart only after inspecting its price, session and volume assumptions. Tick-volume-based rules on CFDs and traded-volume rules on equities/futures need different interpretation. Do not transfer a fixed point/brick distance between them without conversion.

Load and inspect historical examples#

Choose Refresh after selecting the system, symbol and timeframe. Where supported, the app prepares needed cTrader history automatically; otherwise a no-history state offers Open Data Download. A detector can report that it needs more history. Do not interpret that as “no valid setups”; it is an input-coverage problem.

The setup gallery offers All, Long and Short, with Strip or Grid presentation. Select a card to focus the associated chart/marker; select the marker to focus its card. Use Previous setup (older) and Next setup (newer) to work chronologically. Confirm the selected trade/setup highlighting rather than assuming the first visible card always matches the chart.

Read ENTRY, SL, T1, T2 and RISK DISTANCE in the setup detail where provided. These are rule-derived plan levels. They are not broker fills, position size, guaranteed targets or realized P&L. A complete example display can include warmup history and replay markers; it remains historical decision support.

Open companion tools#

A rulebook can supply Open chart template, Open screener and workspace companions. Chart templates create/configure a chart in the workspace; a screener provides a reusable universe/column/rule layout; a workspace companion can ask to create a named workspace. Read the confirmation before switching or creating content.

After opening companions, verify indicator availability, chart sources, timeframe and actual account. A plugin asset does not include broker credentials. A screener's rules run with its screener session; persistent Background alerts must be configured separately when needed. Templates are starting configurations, not approvals for live execution.

Turn study into a repeatable workflow#

Write the rulebook's entry conditions, invalidation, exit logic, session and sizing assumption in your own research notes. Review both long and short setups and periods with no qualifying completed-bar setup. Use Replay/manual-forward testing or a formal backtest for execution/cost questions; the gallery alone does not simulate an outcome.

Keep the data source, adjustment/price basis and date range consistent when comparing with another platform. A price-based signal before costs can fail after spread, commission, slippage or delayed confirmation. A rulebook's chart gallery is not an out-of-sample profitability report.

Recover missing systems or examples#

No trading systems found points to the installed plugin catalog. Use Plugin workspace where offered and verify that the required guide assets are installed and published. A malformed descriptor can be reported as a catalog error; reloading cannot repair an invalid plugin file by itself.

No local history, Detector needs more history, Examples unavailable, Chart bars unavailable and No qualifying completed-bar setup are different states. Fix source/history/indicator prerequisites for the first four; accept a genuine no-setup result rather than changing filters until it produces a trade. When reporting a problem, include system/plugin identity, exact instrument, timeframe and visible error, without account secrets.

Continue with related tasks#

Add, configure and interpret chart indicators, Save and reuse chart templates, Build and use watchlists and screeners.