# Quick start tutorial

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**Our intuitive visual approach makes it easy for traders of all levels of experience, to transform their ideas into fully automated trading strategies without the need for any coding knowledge whatsoever.**
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<summary>Step 1 - Choose an instrument</summary>

Search for your instrument of your choice by name or ticker symbol, select a trading time frame between 1 minute and 1 month depending on your intended approach, give your strategy a name and then select "Build strategy" to get started.

All market data is provided free of charge. Access over 200,000 stocks and financial instruments from 75 global exchanges.

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<summary>Step 2 - Build your strategy</summary>

Start building your strategy block-by-block using our simple drag and drop interface. Select the plus icon by the "Add block" option to add data, trading indicators, candle stick indicators and trading logic to your strategy.

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<summary>Step 3 - Connect all the blocks </summary>

Connect blocks as necessary by dragging the connector lines from the output of any block to the input of another. Use the traffic light connection status indicator to quickly check that all blocks are connected correctly. If the light is red, double-check all connectors between the blocks as there will be a missing link that needs to be added. Once you have made the corrections, the indicator will automatically turn green.

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<summary>Step 4 - Validate the performance</summary>

When the block connections are complete, run a quick back-test using up to 30 years of real market data to calculate the historic performance of your strategy and see the results. Use the "Experiment with different parameters" tool to make adjustments to the profit target, stop loss or to use an alternative timeframe. If necessary, go back to the canvas to make edits to your strategy and then run the backtest again to see the impact of the changes and until your strategy results are satisfactory.&#x20;

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Backtesting provides traders with valuable information however it is only one part of the evaluation process. Virtual trading provides further confirmation on the effectiveness of a strategy before any capital is at risk so it is always recommended to virtual trade for a short time.&#x20;
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<summary>Step 5 - Deploy your strategy</summary>

Once testing is complete there are two options for deploying your strategy;

1. **Virtual trading** - also known as paper trading, this is a method to trade your strategy with no downside risk by using virtual funds. Keep in mind that even though the backtest results may have been excellent, as historic data is known there is a chance that your strategy may have been over optimised to the past therefore it is always recommended to virtual trade for a short time before deploying and trading live with your broker accounts.&#x20;
2. **Live trading -** Live trading involves executing real trades resulting in real profits/losses with your broker. In order to trade live you need to connect to your broker using thier API. Retrieve these details from your broker accounts and then add using the broker settings page in Market Dynamics. Once connected, any trade signals generated by your strategy will automatically execute trades with your broker.&#x20;

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A good correlation between backtesting and virtual forward performance is vital for determining the viability of a trading strategy.
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If you have any questions or need any further technical support or assistance feel free to reach out to our team and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
