Guides
Learn the craft,
keep the account.
Practical, no-hype guides on passing prop firm evaluations, backtesting honestly and building gold strategies that hold up on real data. Written by the team behind the lab, with the same rule we apply to our own reports: drawdown first, no promises.
How to pass an FTMO evaluation: the rules, the maths and a realistic plan
What the FTMO evaluation actually measures, why most attempts fail on drawdown rather than profit, and how to prepare a strategy with evidence instead of hope.
Prop firmsProp firm copy trading rules explained: why identical trades get accounts flagged
Prop firms scan for accounts placing the same trades at the same time. What counts as copy trading, why honest traders get caught out, and how to stay clearly on the right side of the rules.
BacktestingHow to backtest a gold trading strategy without fooling yourself
The five ways backtests lie (overfitting, spread, session bias, survivorship and cherry-picked windows) and a step-by-step process for producing a result you can actually trust.
StrategyXAU/USD breakout strategies: how gold really moves and how to trade it
Why gold suits breakout trading, the sessions and levels that matter (Asian range, London open, New York), and how to turn a chart observation into a testable rule set.
BacktestingForward testing vs backtesting: why paper trading first saves funded accounts
A backtest tells you a strategy worked; a forward test tells you it still works. What each one can and cannot prove, and the promotion path from idea to live account.
Reading is step one.
Testing is step two.
Put any idea from these guides to the test on years of real gold data. Free to start, no card required.