Open course in discretionary trading
How to Start Trading: An Open Introduction
How to start trading without the usual expensive first year: what an account and a broker are, how much capital you need, what each trade costs, how to limit a loss, and how to write a first plan before the first order.
How to start trading is a question with a cheap answer and an expensive one. The expensive answer is to open an account, fund it and learn from the losses. The cheap answer is to learn first what a trade costs, how large a loss you can take and what you will do when you are wrong, and to write it down before the first order.
What should you know before your first trade?
Four things. How your broker handles an order. What the trade will cost you in commission and spread. How much you will lose if the price moves against you, and where you will get out. And whether you are trading a plan or a feeling. This course covers each of them in plain terms.
Why do most new traders lose money?
Studies of retail brokerage accounts find that most day traders lose money over a year, and that the losses come mostly from costs, from trading too often and from position sizes too large for the account. None of those is a lack of talent. All of them can be fixed before you start.
Where does this course lead?
It is the free starting point of the trader path. The Foundation Certificate in Trading is the next step: one semester on markets, orders, charts, costs, risk and the psychology of trading, with no programming.
What you will be able to do
- Explain what a broker does with an order and what a trading account holds.
- Estimate what a trade costs in commission and spread before placing it.
- Set a loss limit per trade and per month before you start.
- Write a one-page first trading plan.
Syllabus, module by module
Markets, brokers and accounts
Cash and margin accounts, what a broker does, and what protects your money if a broker fails.
How much capital you need
Account minimums, the pattern day trader rule in the United States, and why small accounts pay more in costs.
What a trade costs
Commission, the bid-ask spread and slippage, worked through on one real order.
Limiting a loss
Stop losses, position size and a monthly loss limit, set before the first trade.
A first plan
What to trade, when, how much and when to stop, on one page.
How the certificate is earned
Self-check questions at the end of each lesson. The course is not assessed. Completing every lesson earns a Certificate of attendance, which states that the course is not assessed. Read how certification works.
Questions applicants ask
How much money do I need to start trading?
Less than most adverts imply for investing, more than most imply for day trading. In the United States the pattern day trader rule sets a minimum account size for margin accounts that day trade often; the course explains the rule and how to check the current figure with your broker. It also shows how to work out a sensible starting amount for your own plan.
Is this course really free?
Yes. There is no charge and no payment details are asked for. You receive a certificate of attendance on completion.
Do I need to know how to code?
No. Nothing on the trader path requires programming.