1. Core Master Trading
Strategies

2. An Introduction to trading strategies from The
MASTER IN TRADING COURSE
Presented by Online Finance Academy Inc. ©
2017
Authors: Jon Harman, Adam Jagiellowicz

3. This mini course is designed to
introduce you to:
 The concepts and ethos of Online Finance Academy
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 The benefits of taking our flagship Master in Trading course.
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 The people you will be learning from and the skills you will be
learning.
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 The next steps to progress.
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 This is the starting point to become a professional trader…
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4. What is Online Finance Academy?
 We are a group of highly experienced trader/instructors, each with at
least 20 years experience trading. (Most of us are still active traders).
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 We teach a process driven trading method that enables the next
generation of traders to succeed in their careers.
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 With a presence in North America, Australasia, Europe and the UK, we
are looking to build long term relationships with our students and
corporate clients through elite training and rigorous recruitment
processes.
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5. WHY LEARN WITH OFA?
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 We have experts in many different fields of trading, with courses to suit all trader
types because we know not everyone can succeed trading the same way.
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 We have all designed and contributed towards trading education courses for
many years and get great satisfaction in watching our students mature and
prosper.
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 We have partnerships with proprietary trading firms, financial institutions, funders,
and investment firms.
 We can provide direct 1 to 1 access to highly skilled traders who will mentor you,
show you how their strategies work; as well as access to our trader chat portal.
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 To see our teacher’s c.v.’s, follow this link: www.onlinefinanceacademy/ourteam/
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6. KEY PARTS OF SYLLABUS
 Understand how institutional traders trade; we are mostly former pit
traders and market makers so we show you how things really work.
 An introduction to the three key principals of technical trading - time,
price, volume – and understanding how to profit from their
interaction.
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 Learn how and why markets move based on principles of physics,
psychology and maths.
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 Understand the benefits of different chart types and how to use them in
a unified strategy.
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 Order Flow, and Volume Profile Analysis.
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7. KEY PARTS OF SYLLABUS
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 Understanding the basics of macro-fundamentals and market
correlations to support your trading strategy.
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 Learn how to identify key support and resistance zones using Volume
Profile, Fibonacci and Bollinger Bands.
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 Market Profile; learn day types, open types, their associated
probabilities, and how to employ this knowledge in a daily trading
plan.
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8. KEY PARTS OF SYLLABUS
 Learning to develop an intuition for developing chart patterns using
candlesticks, levels and volume analysis.
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 Learn to identify high probability trade set-ups and associated risk
management strategies.
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 Learn how automated trading algorithms affect market behaviour
and how to recognize genuine market activity from market noise.
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9. KEY PARTS OF SYLLABUS
 See inside the market and learn how to time your trade execution.
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 Learn how to understand who is in control of the market and how to
profit from this by reading order flow.
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 Learn how to predict probability of short squeezes or profit taking.
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 Learn where to place stops and profit targets; understand why the
most common places retail traders place stops are the worst
places.
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10. Anatomy of a Trade
 The following slides are an example of how we will teach you to think
and act as a professional trader. The purpose is to give you a taste
of how we think about and interact with real live markets to ensure
we make consistently good trading decisions.
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 Trading is a business of managing probabilities. It is critical to have an
approach that is consistent, and yet adaptable to changing market
conditions.
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 There is no guaranty that any particular trade will bring a profit, but if
we continue to make the right trading decisions over time, we will be
successful.
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11. ANATOMY OF A
TRADE
HOW TO USE DIFFERENT TOOLS FOR CONFIRMATION OF ENTRY AND
TARGET

12. HOW WE USE TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
 Every market is different and has it’s own characteristics. It is important
to know your market intricately and recognise which technical
indicators work best with each product.
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 We first need to know the big picture and therefore start our analysis
using weekly and daily charts for context; only when we understand
the context can we drill down into the finer detail.
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 We are looking for a confluence of indicators to support our decision.
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 TA cannot guarantee what will happen. We use it to try and deduce
the most likely scenario and we follow that path until proven
otherwise.

13. ANALYSIS OF A TRADE
 The following slides will show the approach we take for a very
standard intraday trade in the German Bond market (Bunds).
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 Normally a trader will not need to refer to a weekly or daily chart very
often as he will already have the big picture in his head from
trading the product regularly.
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 In this particular case there was no fundamental news on the day
and none expected. The trade takes place in the European
afternoon session on a normal volume day.
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 The first slide is a weekly Market Profile.

16. CHART ANALYSIS
 If we look at the daily and weekly charts we can see that following a
steep sell off in the bund, the market has made a higher low—swing
low—at 162.44 and followed this with an aggressive bounce back.
 The previous weeks profile gives us a clear line in the sand at 163.37
where the market broke above and continued the recent pattern
of aggressive buying
 On the daily chart---today—we have gapped higher from the previous
days close and tested up to and then failed at the 100 day MA—
blue line on chart.
 Since then we have pulled back towards the top of the previous days
close. What can we deduce from this ?

17. CHART ANALYSIS
 The market has moved up aggressively over last few days meaning that bulls
have been in control and shorts have been squeezed
 We finally hit resistance at the 100 day MA and this has led to a bout of profit
taking.
 It is unlikely that this will become a rout and completely reverse the recent move
without the catalyst of fresh news or information changing market participants
views.
 More likely is that weak longs who got into the market in the morning combined
with longs from the previous few days are selling but they are likely to be met
by buyers who are either people who missed out on the recent rally and want
to participate, or shorts who have not got out of their position due to the
aggressive rally and have waited for a pullback to exit.
 Our conclusion is that we should look for a sign of buying meeting the selling to
go long rather than initiate an aggressive short for a reversal of the last few
days move.

18. CHART ANALYSIS
 Now that we have our big picture idea it is time to see if there is any
evidence on a shorter time frame to confirm our view.
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 At this point it is also important to look for signs that we are wrong and
not try to fit what we see into our preconceived ideas.
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 Always keep an open mind and be prepared to let go of your most
likely scenario if the market doesn’t behave as expected.
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 Also remember that doing nothing is also an option. We need to wait
for high probability set-ups.

21. CHART ANALYSIS
 The time is now 14:45 and although there is no sign of buyers stepping up to
meet the sellers on our 30 minute chart, the 15 minute chart tells a
different story. The strong buying from the low at 51 followed by an
indecisive candle should put us on alert to see if this is what we have been
waiting for.
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 We now need to drill down into the market. It is still far too early to just blindly
go long as we could easily be shaken out of our position.

23. CHART ANALYSIS
 Looking at our shorter time frame charts,15 minute, 5 minute and
Renko we can see some evidence that our idea of looking for
buying may be correct but we have no clear entry point.
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 If the market can break above the value area low (VAL) and hold it,
we should rally towards the top of value, however the market
could still just as easily come back and retest the low and shake us
out.
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 We need to be vigilant now and look for extra confirmation before
entering.

26. CHART ANALYSIS
 On the last 2 charts are marked two buy zones - showing exactly the same
market at the same time.
 The problem with the buy zone marked as aggressive is that we have no
confirmation that this really is the low. The market is just as likely to retest
the low or make new lows as to break into and stay within the day’s current
value area. Although this trade worked, over the long term this is a risky
strategy.
 The higher probability purchase area makes more sense because the market
has proven it’s strength by moving back inside the value area and then
coming back to test the value area low. This is a consistently successful
trade set-up in this contract.
 In the first case the stop would be below the days low and in the second
below the value area low and possible below the bar that saw strong
volume buying at 15:05 - in other words, below 163.56.

27. TARGET ?
 Before we enter a trade we should already know our target as
otherwise we have no idea if our risk/reward makes sense.
 In this description I have avoided talking about the target as this
is simply a taster of what you can expect to learn on our
Fundamentals of Trading course
 Suffice to say the target in this case was the Value Area High
VAH , which came in at 163.97 i.e. Approx.30 ticks profit
against 8 ticks of risk—a reasonable risk reward scenario. The
market actually only reached 163.95 before reversing towards
the lows a few hours later.

29. Assessing the Trade…
 This was by no means an ideal trade, there were plenty of
opportunities for things to go wrong but the reality is that ALL
trading is like that and as such this was quite realistic as it’s
extremely rare to find a risk free set-up.
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 Hopefully these slides gave you a small insight into how a professional
trader thinks and approaches the market—a few slides can only
start to scratch the surface.
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 To learn more about how our trading strategies and approach can
help develop your trading career, feel free to reach us at:
info@onlinefinanceacademy.com
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30. Other topics you will learn at OFA in
our Master In Trading Course
 The most critical of factors…
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Psychology and Risk Management
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 Our ways of teaching this are not academic, they are based on the
experience we learned managing trading desks for banks and proprietary
trading firms.
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 We combined this expertise with learning strategies which assess and develop
your own personal strengths. Most traders have tried various styles and
methods before achieving success; we know how to find this within you.

31. HOW NOT TO MANAGE YOUR RISK
Learn how and why most new traders
fail; the inability to appreciate risk,
and how to manage it.
Learn where risk in the market
exceeds opportunity and how and
when you need to stay away from the
markets.
Develop a model of risk management
that suits your trader personality.

32. A HEALTHY MIND MAKES FOR A
HEALTHY TRADER
Learn key skills to protect yourself from
yourself
Understand why the best trades are the
most difficult to take
Learn to recognise when your state of
mind is affecting your trading and what
to do about it

33. Also Learn how to use
macrofundamentals in your trading
 Learn the key correlations between different products and asset
classes and when and why these correlations break down.
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 Understand how to profit from these correlations and recognise
which product is “leading”
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 Learn about mean reversion strategies and when they are
appropriate.
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34. Other key topics you will learn…
 The characteristics of different products and how to structure
your trading approach accordingly.
 Understand the importance of the Yield Curve and how to
profit from it.
 Using Open Interest and volume in your trading strategy.
 Learn the best news sources for different products.
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35. About the Instructor of this Course:
Jon Harman
Jon began his trading career in the mid 1980’s with BNP before moving to JP Morgan.
In the early 1990’s he became a self-employed ‘local’ trader on the L.I.F.F.E. floor. He
made a successful transition to the electronic markets at the turn of the century and
acted as a mentor and advisor to many other traders. Jon was head of training at
Futex from 2014, and was a co-founder of FutexLive. Since mid 2016 Jon has worked as
a private trading mentor, as well as designing and presenting training courses for Eurex
and their clients.
Jon trades all major futures products, with most of his activity based in the German
Bund, EuroStoxx and the S&P e-mini. Jon trades both the intraday and swing trading
time frames and prefers volatile market environments. His expertise in Market Profile
and order flow combined with his deep knowledge of macro-economics and Central
Bank policy enables him to judge how the markets are likely to react to economic
releases and geo-political events.
Based in London, Jon’s role at Online Finance Academy is as a lead instructor, mentor
and curriculum developer. He teaches the Master in Trading Core course and is
available to students worldwide.
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36. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
 Once you have completed our Master in Trading Core Course you will have
developed the knowledge to know what type of trader you are.
 We have many other courses available which specialise in key sectors of
trading and all taught by experts in their field with decades of trading
experience.
 You may decide to further your education in Yield Curve/Spread Trading
Strategies, Commodities Trading and Hedging , Scalping Futures, Personal
Portfolio Management, or Day Trading Stocks.
 For a full list of our courses, follow this link:
www.onlinefinanceacademy.com/courses
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