IC Markets
Chart Pre-Flight is for education and planning only and is not financial advice or a trading signal. Readings come from fixed rules on price data that can be delayed, or from an AI model that can misread a screenshot, so check every level on your own platform. Forex and CFD trading carries a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage.
How Chart Pre-Flight works
Four short steps. Everything except the optional screenshot reading is calculated from fixed rules, with no AI.
- Pick a market
Choose one of 11 markets (ten forex pairs and gold) and a 1-hour, 4-hour or daily timeframe. The tool loads recent candles, draws them with the key levels, and builds the reading. Or switch to Upload and send a screenshot of your own chart.
- Add your trade idea (optional)
Choose long or short and enter your entry, stop loss and take profit. Add your balance and risk per trade to get a position size.
- Tap the mind-check flags that are true
Five honest questions about losses, news, your plan, chasing and correlated trades.
- Read the report
You get a readiness score, three scenarios with triggers and invalidation, key levels, no-trade conditions and a plan check. Change any input and the report updates at once.
How a market reading is worked out
A market reading uses five trend checks on the last 140 candles. Each check scores one point up or one point down, and swing structure can also score zero.
| Trend check | Points up when | Points down when |
|---|---|---|
| Price vs 20-period average | Price is above it | Price is below it |
| 20 vs 50-period average | The 20 is above the 50 | The 20 is below the 50 |
| Slope of the 50-period average | Higher than 10 candles ago | Lower than 10 candles ago |
| RSI (14) | Above 50 | Below 50 |
| Swing structure | Higher high and higher low | Lower high and lower low |
The five scores are averaged into a number from −1 to +1. The bullish weighting is 20% plus up to 40% for a positive score, the bearish weighting is 20% plus up to 40% for a negative score, and the range case takes the rest. So five checks up gives 60% bullish, 20% range and 20% bearish, and a flat score gives 20%, 60% and 20%. Key levels are the nearest swing highs above price and swing lows below it, where a swing is a candle whose high or low is the extreme of the four candles either side.
How to read the scenario map
Every chart gets exactly three cases. Together their weightings add up to 100%.
Leaning
How strongly the chart favours that case compared with the other two. It is a relative weighting, not a probability of profit.
Trigger
The price event that would confirm the case, such as a close above a level. Until it happens, the case is only an idea.
Wrong if
The invalidation: the price event that proves the case wrong. Decide this before you enter, not after.
Target
The level or zone the case points to if it plays out.
Stand aside if
Conditions where no trade is the better trade, such as price sitting mid-range with no confirmation.
What Ready, Wait and Stand aside mean
The verdict comes from fixed rules, checked in this order. The readiness score always sits inside the band of its verdict.
| Verdict | Score band | When you see it |
|---|---|---|
| Stand aside | 5 to 39 | Two or more mind-check flags are up, your stop or target is on the wrong side of your entry, or your reward is smaller than your risk. |
| Wait | 40 to 69 | Your idea goes against the leading scenario, one mind-check flag is up, the range case leads, or no scenario reaches 45%. |
| Ready | 70 to 98 | None of the above. The bullish or bearish case leads with at least 45% and your plan, if you entered one, fits it. |
Ready does not mean enter now. It means the map is clear: wait for the trigger and respect the invalidation.
The maths behind the plan check
Risk-to-reward is the distance to your target divided by the distance to your stop. The win rate you need to break even is 1 ÷ (1 + reward-to-risk).
| Risk-to-reward | Break-even win rate | What the tool says |
|---|---|---|
| 1:0.5 | 66.7% | Stand aside: reward is smaller than risk |
| 1:1 | 50.0% | Flagged: aim for at least 1:1.5 |
| 1:1.5 | 40.0% | Passes |
| 1:2 | 33.3% | Passes |
| 1:3 | 25.0% | Passes |
Position size = (balance × risk %) ÷ (stop distance in pips × pip value per lot). With $5,000, 1% risk, a 27-pip stop and $10 per pip per lot: $50 ÷ $270 = 0.19 lots. Check the pip value with your broker, because it changes with the pair and your account currency. For more detail use the position size calculator and the risk-reward calculator.
Why the mind check can overrule the chart
A good setup taken in a bad state of mind is a bad trade. Each flag covers a common way traders break their own rules.
Lost my last 2 trades
After losses the urge is to win it back with a bigger or rushed trade. The drawdown calculator shows how fast that deepens a losing run.
News within 60 minutes
A high-impact release can move price through your stop and widen spreads. Check the economic calendar first.
Not in my plan
A setup you have not defined in advance has no tested edge behind it.
Chasing a fast move
Entering because price is running usually means a late entry and a stop that is too far away or too tight.
Correlated trade open
A second trade on a pair that moves with your first is the same bet at double the size. See the correlation matrix.
Uploading your own chart instead
Switch to Upload to have an AI vision model read a screenshot from TradingView, MT4, MT5 or any platform. It is rougher than a market reading, so treat its levels as a starting point.
- Show the price axis and the pair and timeframe label. Levels are read from them.
- Use a clean chart. Heavy indicator stacks hide the candles.
- Include enough history to see the trend, about 80 to 200 candles.
- Send one chart per reading. Split-screen layouts are harder to read.
- If the reading names a level you cannot find on your chart, trust your chart.
What this tool cannot do
A reading describes what the chart shows now. News, liquidity and other traders decide what happens next.
Market readings use Yahoo Finance candles, which can lag your broker's feed and differ from it by a few pips. Gold uses COMEX futures, which trade above spot gold.
Five trend checks do not know about news, session times or lines you have drawn on your own chart.
An AI reader can misread a level or a pattern, especially on blurred or crowded screenshots. Check every number on your platform.
It does not know your finances, experience or goals. The decision and the risk are yours.
Add this tool to your website
Run a forex blog, course or community? Embed the chart pre-flight on your own site for free. It works on any page that accepts HTML, resizes itself and stays up to date.
Free to use on any site. Please keep the credit line under the widget.
Chart Pre-Flight FAQs
Is Chart Pre-Flight a trading signal?
No. It gives three scenarios with triggers and invalidation levels and never tells you to buy or sell. The leaning percentages are a relative weighting of the scenarios, not a forecast or a probability of profit.
Is it free?
Yes. Market readings, the plan check, the position sizer and the mind check are free with no sign-up and no limit. Screenshot readings are free for five charts a day, and joining the free FX Recap Daily Recap email adds 10 more for that day.
How is a market reading made?
From fixed rules, with no AI. The tool loads recent candles, runs five trend checks (price against its 20-period average, the 20 against the 50, the slope of the 50, RSI and swing structure), and turns the result into three weighted scenarios. Levels are the nearest swing highs and lows.
Which markets and timeframes are covered?
Ten forex pairs (EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, AUD/USD, USD/CAD, USD/CHF, NZD/USD, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY and EUR/GBP) and gold futures, on 1-hour, 4-hour and daily candles. For anything else, upload a screenshot.
Where does the price data come from?
From Yahoo Finance candles. They can be delayed and can differ slightly from your broker's prices. Gold uses COMEX gold futures, which trade above the spot price, so shift the levels if you trade spot gold.
How does the screenshot reading work, and is my chart stored?
Your screenshot is sent to an AI vision model running on Cloudflare Workers AI, which reads the candles, price axis and labels. FX Recap does not store the image. Your direction, entry, stop and target are sent with it if you entered them; your balance and risk settings stay in your browser.
What is the readiness score?
A number from 0 to 100 built from this tool's own rules: how strongly the leading scenario leans, your risk-to-reward ratio and your mind-check flags. It always sits inside the band of its verdict. It is not a probability of profit.
Why does it say Stand aside when the chart looks good?
Because the chart is only one input. Two mind-check flags, a stop or target on the wrong side, or a reward smaller than your risk each turn the result to Stand aside.
Sources: ESMA: restrictions on CFDs to protect retail investors, Investor.gov: stop, stop-limit and trailing stop orders.