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. Eleven courses and a 40-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 license 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 program of study, in three certificates, 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 Foundation Certificate lays the foundations: markets and orders, costs, charts, risk, edge, psychology and the journal. The Intermediate Certificate 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 Advanced Certificate 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 certificate ends with its own 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: Orders, Costs and the Spread 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. It also teaches the bid-ask spread and every other cost of a trade.
- Technical Analysis: Reading Charts and Price Action 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. It also teaches how to read stock charts from scratch and price action trading.
- Day Trading for Beginners: Intraday Trading Done Properly 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. It also teaches intraday trading routines and limits.
- Stop Losses, Position Sizing and Your Trading Edge 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. It also teaches how to measure your trading edge as expectancy.
- Trading Psychology, the Trading Journal and Overtrading 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. It also teaches the trading journal and overtrading and how to stop it.
- Swing Trading and Momentum Trading 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. It also teaches momentum trading.
- Fundamental Analysis, News Trading and Global Macro 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. It also teaches news trading around scheduled releases and global macro trading.
- 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.
- The Trading Plan and Evidence-Based Trading 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. It also teaches evidence-based technical analysis.
- How to Trade Futures and Read Order Flow 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. It also teaches order flow trading.
- Prop Trading Firms and How Bank Traders Think 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. It also teaches how bank and proprietary traders think about risk.
What every course contains
Every paid course comes with the first seven and the certificate, whichever level it sits at. The proctored exam and the credential come when the course is taken as part of a Certificate, Diploma or Fellowship. Everything is self-paced: the material is yours to study in any order, at any hour, for the whole of the license.
- Workbooks. Written to train the thinking patterns and the important concepts of the course, with worked problems and the reasoning behind each answer, so that you learn to think the way the subject is thought.
- Audio edition. Focused, well-presented recordings with explainers and examples of the material, made to be interesting, relevant and entertaining, so that the general subject can be learned away from the desk.
- Notes. Pre-produced notes with every fact the course relies on, written out in full, so that nothing has to be transcribed from the films or the audio.
- Cheat sheet. One sheet with every important learning concept of the course on it, to keep beside you during the work and to revise from before the exam.
- Named sources. Every fact in the notes names its source, the paper, the book or the dataset, for anyone who wants to dig in further.
- Explainer films. Focused films, in the style of the sample films on the catalog page, that walk through the most difficult concepts of the course with visual explanations of a high standard.
- Transcript. A full transcript of every film and every audio recording, searchable and quotable.
- Proctored exam. Taken as part of a Certificate, Diploma or Fellowship, the course ends in a proctored multiple-choice questionnaire, with a pass mark of 60% and three retakes included. A course taken on its own is assessed by its coursework and has no exam.
- Verifiable certificate. A certificate of completion that a third party can verify: an employer sends the code on it to the credentials office and receives written confirmation of the course, the date and the result.
- Credential of the program. The Certificate, Diploma or Fellowship of the program, track or path the course belongs to, awarded when every course in it is passed. Which one depends on the program you choose.
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 the credentials office.
Are there scholarships and financial aid?
A small number of need-based awards are made each intake to students who could not otherwise study, on documented evidence of financial hardship. Most applications are declined. Before you apply, look at what this program already saves you: it costs less than its courses bought alone, and full-fee students are what make every award possible. Read the requirements before you apply.
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?
94 hours of material across the eleven courses, each hour with its audio edition and workbook, and a capstone of 40 hours of your own work. The license runs 18 months, so you set the pace around a job.