Credential program on the trader path
Diploma in Professional Trading
The top credential on the trader path and the Institute's trading certification for people who do not write code. Three semesters, 24 courses and a 160-hour capstone, from a first lesson on how markets work to a six-month simulated trading business reviewed like a desk.
Trading certification usually means one of two things: a regulatory licence for people who advise or deal for clients, or a short course certificate that proves attendance. The Diploma in Professional Trading is neither. It is a full programme of study, three semesters long, that takes a person from no knowledge of markets to the habits, methods and records of a professional discretionary trader, without ever asking them to write code.
What does the diploma cover?
The first semester lays the foundations: markets and orders, costs, charts, risk, edge, psychology and the journal. The second builds and tests methods: technical analysis with its evidence, price action, swing, intraday, news and options trading, evidence-based thinking in the tradition of David Aronson, and the trading plan. The third trains the professional: order flow, futures, momentum, global macro, fundamental analysis, how bank and prop traders think, prop firm evaluations, and a full performance review.
How is it assessed?
Every course has its own exercises, problem sets and a proctored exam with a 60% pass mark and up to three retakes. Each semester ends with a certificate capstone, and the diploma ends with a six-month simulated trading business assessed in writing by two faculty members.
Who should take it?
People who want to become traders and are willing to study for it, discretionary and prop traders who want a complete grounding and a credential that shows it, and anyone who has been told that trading cannot be taught without code. No programming is needed at any point.
The courses in this program
- How to Trade Stocks: Markets, Brokers and Orders How to trade stocks with a clear picture of what happens behind the button: exchanges and brokers, every common order type, margin and short selling, corporate actions, settlement and the records you keep for tax.
- Trading Costs: Bid-Ask Spreads, Commissions and Slippage The bid ask spread is the first cost of every trade and the one most traders never count. This course measures it with commissions, slippage, financing and fees, and shows which trading styles survive their costs.
- How to Read Stock Charts: Candles, Volume and Levels How to read stock charts the way a careful trader does: what each candle records, how timeframes change the picture, what volume adds, where support and resistance come from, and which chart claims fail when tested.
- Day Trading for Beginners: What It Really Takes Day trading for beginners without the sales pitch: how the trading day is structured, which instruments suit it, the rules and costs that apply, the main setups, and the evidence on how many day traders make money.
- Stop Losses and Position Sizing for Traders Where to put a stop loss and how large a position to take, as one decision: fixed-fraction sizing, volatility-based stops, the risk reward ratio, daily and monthly loss limits, and what happens when the market gaps through your stop.
- Trading Edge: Expectancy, Probability and Luck A trading edge is a positive expected result after costs that you can show on a record. This course teaches the probability a trader needs to judge one: expectancy, win rate and payoff, variance, sample size and the many ways luck looks like skill.
- Trading Psychology: Decisions Under Risk Trading psychology taught from the research on decisions under risk: why traders hold losers and cut winners, how overconfidence grows after a good run, what tilt and revenge trading look like, and the routines that protect you from yourself.
- The Trading Journal: Self-Analysis for Traders A trading journal is the trader's laboratory notebook. This course teaches what to record for each trade, how to tag decisions and mistakes, how to run a weekly review, and how to read your own statistics in a spreadsheet so you learn from the record, not from memory.
- Technical Analysis, Tested: Indicators and Evidence Technical analysis as a set of claims you can check: moving averages, momentum oscillators, volume indicators and chart patterns, what each measures, what the published evidence says, and how to test one on your own market with a spreadsheet.
- Price Action Trading and Market Structure Price action trading reads the chart itself rather than indicators: market structure, swing points, trends and ranges, breakouts and failed breakouts, pullbacks and the zones where orders gather. Every setup is defined by a rule and checked on your own record.
- Swing Trading: Holding Trades for Days and Weeks Swing trading holds positions for days to weeks, which suits people who cannot watch a screen all day. This course covers scanning for candidates, the main setups, the overnight and gap risk that comes with holding, earnings and event dates, and a weekly routine you can keep.
- Intraday Trading: Manual Execution and Spread Costs Intraday trading lives or dies on execution. This course covers the shape of the trading day, how spreads and depth change from the open to the close, how to place orders by hand without paying away your edge, and how to measure slippage and cost per trade in your own record.
- News Trading: Earnings, Data Releases and Events News trading reacts to scheduled and unscheduled information: central bank decisions, economic data, earnings and company announcements. This course teaches how markets price an expected number, why the surprise matters more than the headline, what happens to spreads around a release, and when the right trade is no trade.
- Options Trading for Beginners: Calls, Puts and Risk Options trading for beginners, taught with payoff diagrams and a spreadsheet instead of formulas: what calls and puts are, how premium, time decay and implied volatility set the price, the common strategies such as covered calls and spreads, and the ways options lose money for the people who buy them.
- Evidence-Based Trading: Scientific Thinking for Traders Evidence-based technical analysis treats every trading idea as a claim to be tested. Following the scientific approach set out by David Aronson and the wider research literature, this course teaches the scientific method, the cognitive errors that make weak ideas look strong, data-mining bias, and a hand-run test that can reject your favourite setup.
- The Trading Plan: Ideas, Information and Rules A trading plan turns a set of habits into a written business. This course covers where trading ideas come from, which information sources are worth your time and money, how to choose markets and setups, the risk limits that protect the account, and the review cycle that keeps the plan honest.
- Order Flow Trading: Tape Reading and Volume Profile Order flow trading reads the orders behind the price: the limit order book, the time and sales record, volume at each price and the balance of buying and selling. This course teaches each tool, what the research on order flow shows, and how to test an order flow setup on your own record.
- How to Trade Futures: Contracts, Margin and Rolls How to trade futures without learning the hard way: what a contract is, how tick values and margin turn a small move into a large profit or loss, how expiry and rolling work, which contracts suit a small account, and how to size positions so leverage never decides for you.
- Momentum and Breakout Trading Momentum trading buys what has been rising and sells what has been falling, one of the best-documented effects in finance. This course covers the research on time-series and cross-sectional momentum, breakout entries, exits that let trends run, the sharp reversals called momentum crashes, and how to run a manual momentum book.
- Global Macro Trading: Rates, Currencies and the Cycle Global macro trading takes positions on the big forces: interest rates, inflation, growth, currencies and commodities. This course teaches how central banks set policy, how rates drive currencies and asset prices, how the business cycle shows in markets, and how to turn a macro view into a sized trade with a clear exit.
- Fundamental Analysis for Traders: Reading the Numbers Fundamental analysis reads a company's accounts to judge what it is worth and how its results may move the share price. This course teaches the three financial statements, the main valuation ratios, earnings quality and guidance, and how traders use fundamentals to choose which stocks to trade and which events to respect.
- How Bank and Prop Traders Think Proprietary trading desks and bank trading floors run on rules that most retail traders never see: hard risk limits, a daily profit and loss reviewed by someone else, position reviews, and a strict separation of conviction from size. This course teaches how professional traders think about risk, information and their own performance, and how to run your trading the same way.
- Prop Trading Firms: Evaluations, Rules and Payouts Prop trading firms offer traders a funded account after a paid evaluation. This course explains how the evaluations and their rules work, why trailing drawdown rules fail so many traders, what the fees and payouts mean for your expected return, and how to use your own record to decide whether, and how, to attempt one.
- Overtrading and the Performance Review Overtrading is the most common and the most expensive habit in retail trading. This course measures it in your own record, shows what it costs in spreads, commissions and poor decisions, builds the rules that limit it, and ends with a full performance review of your trading across the whole programme.
What is the diploma capstone?
You run a complete trading business on a simulated account for six months: a written plan, two methods tested by hand on past data, desk-style risk limits, a journal of every trade, monthly performance reviews and a final review of about 5,000 words. Two faculty members assess it against published criteria and return a written report on the plan, the tests, the risk control and the honesty of the conclusions.
What does the credential record?
It records that you passed the proctored exam of every course listed on this page and the capstone, assessed by the Institute's faculty. The credential is issued by the Institute. Each one carries a verification code that an employer can check with [email protected].
Questions applicants ask
Can I really start with no knowledge and no programming?
Yes. The diploma begins with the Foundation Certificate in Trading, which assumes only school arithmetic and a spreadsheet, and no course on the trader path requires programming at any point.
How is the diploma different from the three certificates?
The diploma is the three certificates together: the Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced Certificates in Trading, with a longer capstone that runs a full trading business for six months. Each certificate you pass counts toward the diploma.
How does an employer or prop firm check the diploma?
Each diploma carries a verification code. The credentials office confirms the holder, the date of award, the courses passed and the capstone result to anyone who writes with that code.
How long does the diploma take?
2,080 hours of study: three semesters of 640 hours of courses each, then a 160-hour capstone. At 160 hours a month that is 13 months, and the licence runs 18 months so that exams and the capstone fit inside it.