Education4 min read
Learn to Trade Stocks Beginner: A Guide to Paper Trading in the App
How the Learn to Trade Stocks Beginner simulator works: lessons, a virtual balance, practice orders, chart replay and a journal. No real money is involved.
Topic hub · 50 articles
Investing Basics
The first time someone looks at a trading screen, the useful questions are practical ones: what am I buying, what happens when I press buy, what can go wrong, and what do these numbers mean? A strategy pitch or a list of jargon answers none of them.
These guides answer those questions in the order a beginner meets them — ownership and exchanges, then order types and accounts, then the figures on a quote and in an earnings report, then charts and indicators and their limits, and finally the rules, taxes and frauds worth knowing about. Where a rule is involved, the guide cites the regulator that wrote it and the date it was checked.
Nothing here is advice. The guides explain how things work; they do not say what anyone should buy, and they treat charts and indicators as descriptions of the past rather than forecasts. The trading app they link to is a simulator that uses virtual money only.
Where to start
Start with what a share is and how a trade happens
Ownership, exchanges, brokers and the bid–ask spread explain most of what a trading screen shows. Read those before any article about charts.
Learn the order types before you place a practice trade
Market, limit and stop orders behave differently when prices move fast. Practising them in a simulator shows the difference without costing anything.
Treat indicators as descriptions, not predictions
Every chart and indicator article says what the measure is calculated from and where it fails. None of them is a signal to buy or sell.
Start here
Everything else in this hub
- Education3 min read
The Bid–Ask Spread: The Cost of a Trade You Do Not See on a Receipt
The bid is the best price buyers offer, the ask the best price sellers accept. How the spread works, how to measure it, and why it costs money.
- Education4 min read
Bull vs Bear Markets: Definitions, Corrections and What the Labels Miss
A bull market is a rise of 20% or more in a broad index; a bear market a 20% fall. What the labels mean, how corrections differ, and why they come late.
- Education4 min read
Call and Put Options for Beginners: Contracts, Expiry and the Risks
A call is the right to buy and a put the right to sell at a set price by a set date. How option contracts work, with worked profit and loss, and the risks.
- Education4 min read
Capital Gains on Stocks: Short-Term vs Long-Term in US Tax Rules
How US capital gains on stocks are taxed: basis, the one-year line between short- and long-term, the 0%, 15% and 20% rates, and the $3,000 loss limit.
- Education4 min read
Cash Account vs Margin Account: How Each Settles, Borrows and Can Go Wrong
A cash account requires full payment; a margin account lets you borrow against your securities. How each works, the US rules and the risks of borrowing.
- Education3 min read
Compound Interest Explained with Worked Numbers
Compound interest earns returns on earlier returns. The formula, simple versus compound growth, the rule of 72, monthly contributions and debt that compounds.
- Education4 min read
Diversification Explained: What Spreading Risk Can and Cannot Do
Diversification spreads money across investments so one loss hurts less. How it works, why it cannot remove market-wide risk, and where rebalancing fits.
- Education3 min read
Dividend Yield: How It Is Calculated and Why a High Yield Can Be a Warning
Dividend yield is annual dividends per share divided by the share price. Trailing vs forward yield, the payout ratio, and why a high yield can be a warning.
- Education3 min read
Dollar-Cost Averaging: What Investing a Fixed Amount on a Schedule Does
Dollar-cost averaging invests the same amount at regular intervals. Why it lowers your average cost, what it cannot protect against, and lump sum versus DCA.
- Education3 min read
Earnings per Share: Basic, Diluted and How to Read the Figure
Earnings per share divides a company's profit among its shares. How basic and diluted EPS are calculated, why share counts change, and what EPS can hide.
- Education4 min read
ETFs vs Mutual Funds: Trading, Costs and Taxes Compared
ETFs and mutual funds both pool investors' money, but they trade, price and get taxed differently. A side-by-side comparison based on SEC investor guidance.
- Education3 min read
Fractional Shares: Buying Part of a Share, and the Catches
A fractional share is less than one whole share. How dollar-based orders, dividends and splits work, and the limits on voting, order types and transfers.
- Education3 min read
How Dividends Work: Declaration, Ex-Dividend and Payment Dates
How a company declares and pays a dividend, which date decides who receives it, why the share price often drops on the ex-date, and how stock dividends differ.
- Education3 min read
How the Stock Market Works: Exchanges, Brokers and the Price of a Trade
What happens between pressing buy and owning a share: brokers, exchanges, market makers, how prices form from bids and asks, and when a trade settles.
- Education3 min read
How to Read a Stock Quote: Every Number on the Screen, Explained
Last price, change, bid and ask, volume, ranges, market cap, P/E and yield: what each figure on a stock quote means and what it does not tell you.
- Education3 min read
How to Read an Earnings Report: The 10-Q, the 10-K and the Press Release
What a company publishes each quarter, where to find it on EDGAR, and how to read the income statement, cash flow, risk factors and non-GAAP figures.
- Education3 min read
How to Read Candlestick Charts, and What a Pattern Cannot Tell You
Each candlestick shows a period's open, high, low and close. How to read bodies and wicks, what common patterns are said to mean, and why none of them predicts.
- Education4 min read
What Is an Index Fund? How Tracking an Index Works
An index fund aims to match an index's return before fees rather than beat it. How tracking works, why costs matter, tracking difference and the limits.
- Education4 min read
Investment Fraud Red Flags: Guaranteed Returns, Pressure and Pump-and-Dumps
The warning signs the SEC lists: guaranteed high returns, pressure to act now, unsolicited contacts, odd payment methods and pump-and-dump stock tips.
- Education4 min read
MACD Explained: Lines, Signal and Histogram From Their Moving Averages
MACD subtracts a 26-day EMA from a 12-day EMA and adds a signal line and histogram. How each part is built, how crossovers work and why they often whipsaw.
- Education3 min read
What Is a Margin Call? Maintenance Requirements and Forced Sales, Explained
A margin call is a demand for more cash or securities when your account equity falls too low. How to calculate one, what brokers can do, and the risks.
- Education3 min read
Market Capitalization: Large-, Mid- and Small-Cap Explained
Market cap is share price times shares outstanding. How to calculate it, the usual size bands from mega-cap to micro-cap, and what size does not tell you.
- Education4 min read
Market Circuit Breakers and Limit Up–Limit Down, Explained
US markets halt when the S&P 500 falls 7%, 13% or 20% in a day, and single stocks pause under Limit Up–Limit Down. How each level and price band works.
- Education4 min read
Market Order vs Limit Order: Price Certainty or Fill Certainty
A market order fills but its price is not guaranteed; a limit order caps the price but may not fill. How each works, worked examples, and the trade-off.
- Education3 min read
Moving Averages Explained: Simple vs Exponential, and Their Built-In Lag
How simple and exponential moving averages are calculated, worked step by step, why every moving average lags, and what crossovers do and do not mean.
- Education3 min read
The Pattern Day Trader Rule: What It Is and What Changed
FINRA replaced the pattern day trader rule and its $25,000 minimum with intraday margin standards in June 2026. What the old rule required and what applies now.
- Education4 min read
The P/E Ratio: How It Is Calculated and Why It Is Not a Bargain Detector
The price-to-earnings ratio divides a share price by earnings per share. How to calculate trailing and forward P/E, compare it fairly, and read its limits.
- Education3 min read
Risk Tolerance and Time Horizon: Questions to Ask Before Any Investment
Risk tolerance is your ability and willingness to lose money for higher potential returns. How time horizon changes it, a drawdown test and questions to ask.
- Education4 min read
The RSI Indicator: How It Is Calculated and Why "Overbought" Is Not a Forecast
The Relative Strength Index compares recent gains with recent losses on a 0–100 scale. How Wilder's RSI is calculated and why overbought is not a sell signal.
- Education4 min read
How Short Selling Works, and Why Its Losses Have No Ceiling
Short selling means selling borrowed shares and buying them back later. How a short sale works step by step, its costs, and why its losses are unlimited.
- Education3 min read
What SIPC Protection Covers, and What It Does Not
SIPC protects up to $500,000 per customer, including $250,000 cash, if a member brokerage fails. It does not cover market losses. Limits and examples.
- Education5 min read
Stock Buybacks: How Repurchases Work and What They Change
A buyback is a company purchasing its own shares. Methods, the effect on earnings per share, the SEC Rule 10b-18 safe harbor and the 1% US excise tax.
- Education4 min read
Stock Market Hours, Pre-Market and After-Hours Trading Explained
US stock market hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern. What pre-market, after-hours and overnight sessions are, and why trading in them carries extra risk.
- Education3 min read
Stock Splits and Reverse Splits: Why the Price Changes but Your Stake Does Not
A stock split multiplies shares and divides the price; a reverse split does the opposite. Why neither changes what you own, and why companies do them.
- Education3 min read
Stocks vs Bonds: Ownership vs Lending, and How Their Risks Differ
A stock is a share of ownership; a bond is a loan to an issuer. How each pays you, who is paid first in a bankruptcy, interest rate risk and how they combine.
- Education4 min read
Stop Orders vs Stop-Limit Orders: What Happens When the Price Gaps
A stop order turns into a market order at the stop price; a stop-limit turns into a limit order. How each behaves in a fast or gapping market, with examples.
- Education4 min read
Support and Resistance: Price Levels, Hindsight and Why They Fail
Support and resistance are price levels where falling or rising prices have tended to stall. How chart readers draw them, role reversal, and why levels break.
- Education4 min read
Technical vs Fundamental Analysis: Two Questions About One Stock
Fundamental analysis asks what a business is worth; technical analysis studies price and volume. How each works, what each assumes, and where each falls short.
- Education4 min read
Time-in-Force: Day Orders vs Good-’Til-Canceled
How long an order stays open: day orders, good-til-canceled, IOC, fill-or-kill, all-or-none and on-open or on-close, plus what happens on dividends and splits.
- Education3 min read
T+1 Settlement: When a Stock Trade Actually Completes
Most US stock trades settle one business day after the trade date. What settlement means, what changed in May 2024, and why it matters for cash accounts.
- Education4 min read
How to Keep a Trading Journal That Teaches You Something
What to record for every trade, a worked journal entry, how to review win rate and expectancy, and the records the IRS expects you to keep anyway.
- Education3 min read
Trading Volume: What the Number of Shares Traded Does and Does Not Show
Volume counts how many shares changed hands. How to read volume bars, why every trade has a buyer and a seller, what spikes mean, and what OBV adds.
- Education4 min read
The Wash Sale Rule: When a Loss Cannot Be Claimed Yet
Sell at a loss and buy substantially identical stock within 30 days before or after, and the IRS defers the loss. How the rule works, with worked IRS examples.
- Education4 min read
What Is a Brokerage Account? Types, Protections and Opening One
A brokerage account lets you buy and sell stocks, bonds and funds through a registered firm. Cash vs margin, what opening one asks, fees and protections.
- Education3 min read
What Is a Stock? Ownership, Shares and What You Actually Buy
A stock is a share of ownership in a company. What owning one entitles you to, common vs preferred shares, how investors can gain or lose, and who comes first.
- Education3 min read
What Is a Stock Market Index? How the Big Indexes Are Built
A stock market index tracks a basket of stocks. How price, market-cap and equal weighting work, with worked examples, and what the S&P 500 and Dow measure.
- Education3 min read
What Is an IPO? How a Company Goes Public and What Buyers Should Know
An IPO is a company's first sale of shares to the public. How SEC registration works, who gets shares at the offering price, and the risks for buyers.
- Education4 min read
What Is Paper Trading? What Practice With Virtual Money Teaches, and What It Cannot
Paper trading means simulated trades with virtual money. What it teaches well, the parts of real trading it cannot reproduce, and how to practise usefully.
- Education3 min read
Volatility Explained: Standard Deviation, Beta and the VIX
Volatility measures how much prices swing. How standard deviation captures it, what beta compares, what the VIX measures, and why volatility is not loss.