Introduction to Trade Idea

A trade idea is a group of trades that are treated as a single decision for trading performance evaluation and risk analysis.

Understanding what constitutes a trade idea is crucial because we apply this definition in multiple rules and policies, including the Maximum Risk per Trade Idea rule for our Instant Mode challenge, which limits how much risk you can take on a single trade idea, even if it includes multiple trades.

What counts as a trade idea?

If you’re trading the same pair, in the same direction, and there’s no gap of more than 60 minutes between trades, it’s one trade idea.

A trade idea includes any positions that meet all three of these conditions:

They are opened on the same symbol (e.g. XAUUSD)
They are in the same direction (all buys or all sells)
Positions overlap in time, or there’s a gap of less than one hour between closing one position and opening the next.

This also means:

If you close a position, then reopen a similar one within the next hour, it still counts as the same trade idea;
If you split one large position into smaller entries (e.g. three separate 0.5 lot trades entered at the same time), that still counts as one trade idea.

What is considered a different trade idea?

To avoid re-entering the same trade idea, you can:

Open trades on different instruments. For example, if you were trading XAU/USD, you can switch to GBP/USD without worrying about taking the same trading idea.
Opening a new trade after more than one hour has passed since the last position closed. For example, if you closed all your BUY XAU/USD positions at 10:00, you can open more buy positions after 11:00.
Opening a trade in the opposite direction (e.g. switching from buy to sell).

Examples

To help understand how this rule works, please check the following examples:

Example #1: Overlapping positions

Suppose you open two positions, which at some point overlap:

09:00 → Open a BUY XAU/USD position.
19:30 → 10 hours later, you open another BUY XAU/USD position.

These trades are part of one trade idea because:

Despite there being a ten-hour difference between when the positions were open, they overlap.
The positions are all in the same direction (buy).
The instrument is the same (XAUUSD).

Example #2: Re-entering the same trade idea

Suppose you open and close a position, then you open a second, less than an hour later:

09:00 → You open a BUY XAU/USD position.
10:10 → You close the first BUY XAU/USD position.
10:50 → 40 minutes later, you open a new BUY XAU/USD position.
12:00 → You close the second position.