How-To Guides
Step-by-step guides: what to do, what you need first, and how to tell it worked.
Most popular
IndicatorsHow to Use the RSIIt measures how one-sided recent movement has been, nothing else. Overbought is not a sell signal, and the levels mean different things in trends and ranges.
IndicatorsHow to Use Fibonacci RetracementHorizontal lines at fixed percentages of a swing you choose. On 200 SPY pullbacks since 1993 the levels caught about what any lines would, so the swing is the real decision.
IndicatorsHow to Use Moving AveragesThe smoothing and the lag are the same property. Choose the length deliberately, read the slope rather than the crossover, and expect it to fail in a range.
TradingHow to Scalp a MarketThe cost is the strategy. Work out the round trip first, trade only the hours with people in them, and require every target to clear that cost first.
RiskHow to Use Margin Without Blowing UpFind the maintenance level before the buying power, size backwards from it, and price the interest. Leverage magnifies drawdown more than it magnifies return.
IndicatorsHow to Use the EMAA moving average that weights recent bars more heavily. It reacts faster than a simple average and it lags anyway, because every average does.
TradingHow to Day Trade a StockOne instrument, levels marked before the open, a plan written before the position exists. Most of the session is not for trading; that is the procedure working.
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Smart money concepts 8
Order blocks, fair value gaps, liquidity and structure breaks.
Smart moneyHow to Find a Fair Value GapA three-candle pattern where the middle candle leaves a range the neighboring wicks never touched. A mechanical definition, which is unusual in this framework.
Smart moneyHow to Identify an Order BlockThe last opposing candle before a move that broke structure. The definition is precise; the way the term gets used usually is not.
Smart moneyHow to Spot a Break of StructureA swing high or low exceeded in the direction of the existing trend. It marks continuation, and it only means something once the swings are marked in advance.
Smart moneyHow to Spot a Change of CharacterThe first break of a swing point against the prevailing trend. It is the earliest structural signal available and the one most often called too soon.
Smart moneyHow to Spot Liquidity on a ChartLiquidity sits where the obvious stops are. Mark equal highs, equal lows and prior session extremes, then watch what price does after it takes them.
Smart moneyHow to Trade a Liquidity SweepPrice running past an obvious level and immediately reversing. The pattern is real; distinguishing it from an ordinary failed breakout is the entire difficulty.
Smart moneyHow to Trade Smart Money ConceptsStructure, then liquidity, then the return. The vocabulary explains everything afterwards, so the written rule is what keeps it a method rather than a story.
Smart moneyHow to Trade a Supply and Demand ZoneMark the candle price left fast, wait for the first return, and put the stop beyond the zone. The zone supplies the reason; the return supplies the timing.
Indicators 25
Setting up and reading each indicator, and where it stops working.
IndicatorsHow to Spot a DivergencePrice makes a new extreme and an indicator does not. It is the easiest pattern to find in hindsight and the hardest to define in a way that could ever be wrong.
IndicatorsHow to Use Bollinger BandsTwo bands drawn a number of standard deviations from a moving average. The width is the information; touching a band is not a signal on its own.
IndicatorsHow to Use Donchian ChannelsThe highest high and lowest low over a lookback. It is the simplest breakout system there is, and its simplicity is the reason it survives.
IndicatorsHow to Use Fibonacci RetracementHorizontal lines at fixed percentages of a swing you choose. On 200 SPY pullbacks since 1993 the levels caught about what any lines would, so the swing is the real decision.
IndicatorsHow to Use Keltner ChannelsA moving average with bands a multiple of the average true range away. Smoother than Bollinger bands, because the width follows range, not deviation.
IndicatorsHow to Use LuxAlgoA signal suite that sits on the chart and marks conditions. Whether it helps depends entirely on whether you had a method for it to speed up.
IndicatorsHow to Use Moving AveragesThe smoothing and the lag are the same property. Choose the length deliberately, read the slope rather than the crossover, and expect it to fail in a range.
IndicatorsHow to Use On Balance VolumeA running total that adds the day's volume when price closes up and subtracts it when it closes down. The level means nothing; the slope is the whole output.
IndicatorsHow to Use Parabolic SARA dot that trails price and flips to the other side when touched. It is always in the market, which is the property that decides whether it suits you.
IndicatorsHow to Use Pivot PointsLevels calculated from the previous period's high, low and close. They matter partly because a lot of people watch the same numbers.
IndicatorsHow to Use SupertrendA trailing line that flips sides when price crosses it. It is an average true range calculation wearing a trend indicator's clothes, and it behaves accordingly.
IndicatorsHow to Use the ADXIt measures how strong a trend is, never which way. Use it to decide whether to trade at all, and let the two directional lines answer the direction question.
IndicatorsHow to Use the ATRHow to use the ATR for stops and size, measured on SPY since 1994: a stop 2 ATRs below the close was hit within 10 sessions 33.57% of the time, in calm and busy markets.
IndicatorsHow to Use the Awesome OscillatorThe difference between a fast and a slow moving average of the bar's midpoint. The same idea as the MACD, with different inputs and no signal line.
IndicatorsHow to Use the CCIIt measures how far price has moved from its own average, scaled by typical deviation. Unbounded, which means an extreme reading can always get more extreme.
IndicatorsHow to Use the EMAA moving average that weights recent bars more heavily. It reacts faster than a simple average and it lags anyway, because every average does.
IndicatorsHow to Use the Gann Box on TradingViewAnchor the Gann box on two clear pivots with log scale off and the price to bar ratio locked, then read the halfway line first and wait for a reaction.
IndicatorsHow to Use the Hull Suite IndicatorHull Suite colors a Hull moving average band green or red by comparing it with its value two bars earlier. Set the variation and length, then use it as a trend filter.
IndicatorsHow to Use the Ichimoku CloudFive components, two of them displaced in time. Most of the value is in one of them, and most of the confusion comes from reading all five at once.
IndicatorsHow to Use the MACDTwo moving averages subtracted. It lags by construction, and choosing which of its three signals you act on before you look is most of the discipline.
IndicatorsHow to Use the Money Flow IndexThe relative strength index with volume attached. Bounded between zero and one hundred, and it pins to one end in a trend exactly like every other oscillator.
IndicatorsHow to Use the RSIIt measures how one-sided recent movement has been, nothing else. Overbought is not a sell signal, and the levels mean different things in trends and ranges.
IndicatorsHow to Use the StochasticIt measures where the close sits inside the recent range. In a range that is informative; in a trend it pins to one end and stays there for weeks.
IndicatorsHow to Use VWAPThe average price weighted by volume, reset each session. Other participants genuinely use it as a reference, which sets it apart from most lines on a chart.
IndicatorsHow to Use Williams %RIt measures where the close sits inside the recent range, expressed as a negative number. Mechanically it is the stochastic with the sign flipped.
Chart reading and patterns 25
Candles, trend lines, levels and the classic patterns.
Chart readingHow to Choose a TimeframeThe chart interval sets your cost per unit of movement, how many decisions you make, and whether the strategy fits your life. A constraint, not a preference.
Chart readingHow to Count an Elliott WaveFive waves with the trend, three against it. The rules are few and strict; the guidelines are many and elastic, and most of the trouble lives in the second set.
Chart readingHow to Draw a Trend LineTwo points draw it and the third is the only test. Decide on wicks or bodies once, give the line width, and delete it rather than redrawing it to fit.
Chart readingHow to Draw Support and ResistanceMark where price turned, draw a band rather than a line, and require two touches before a level counts. The discipline is deletion, not drawing.
Chart readingHow to Find an EntryStart from a level, name one trigger, place the stop before you are in. Against a control, 26 signal entries went 14-11 and 26 scheduled ones went 14-12.
Chart readingHow to Read a Candlestick ChartFour prices per bar. The body is the argument, the wick is the rejection, and the same candle means opposite things in opposite places.
Chart readingHow to Read a Heikin Ashi ChartAveraged candles that smooth a trend into runs of same-colored bars. Their prices are calculated, not traded, and everything else follows from that fact.
Chart readingHow to Read a Point and Figure ChartColumns of marks that advance only when price moves a set amount. Time is removed and small moves discarded, which is both the point and the limitation.
Chart readingHow to Read a Renko ChartBricks that print only when price moves a fixed amount. Time is removed entirely, which is the point and the limitation.
Chart readingHow to Read a Volume ProfileIt shows how much traded at each price, not each time. The busiest price is a level nobody had to draw, but the period you choose creates every level it shows.
Chart readingHow to Read Market StructureHigher highs and higher lows is the whole definition. Mark the swings first, rank the timeframes before they disagree, and expect them to disagree constantly.
Chart readingHow to Read the Market Each SessionA routine, not a skill. Slow chart first, levels before the open, then wait - and most sessions correctly end with nothing done.
Chart readingHow to Trade a BreakoutA level drawn beforehand, one entry method chosen once, and a stop back inside the range. Record every break, including the dull ones that simply continue.
Chart readingHow to Trade a Cup and HandleA rounded base followed by a small drift lower, then a breakout. It is a continuation pattern, and the handle depth is what separates it from a failed recovery.
Chart readingHow to Trade a Double TopTwo peaks at a similar level with a trough between. The pattern completes on the neckline break, and almost every failure comes from trading it before that.
Chart readingHow to Trade a FlagA sharp move followed by a tight drift against it. The pole is not context — it is half the pattern, and it supplies the target.
Chart readingHow to Trade a GapPrice opening away from the previous close. Whether you fade it or follow it are opposite trades, and the reason behind the gap is most of the answer.
Chart readingHow to Trade a Head and ShouldersThree peaks with the middle one highest, and a neckline through the two troughs. The neckline is usually sloped, which is where most drawing errors come from.
Chart readingHow to Trade a PullbackA pullback needs a trend first and a level to arrive at second. Measure how far this instrument normally retraces before deciding what counts as deep.
Chart readingHow to Trade a RangeBuy the bottom, sell the top, until it stops working. The entire difficulty is deciding in advance what 'stops working' means.
Chart readingHow to Trade a ReversalTaking a position against an established move. It has the worst base rate of any setup type, and that is a fact about arithmetic rather than about skill.
Chart readingHow to Trade a TrendBuy pullbacks in an advance and hold. The method is simple; the difficulty is that it produces long stretches of nothing and gives back part of every winner.
Chart readingHow to Trade a TriangleConverging boundaries with price squeezed between them. Three types, and the difference between them is which side is flat — which is most of the information.
Chart readingHow to Trade a Wyckoff AccumulationIt is a sequence, and the sequence is the signal. Wait for the range, the spring and the sign of strength, then enter at the last point of support, not the low.
Chart readingHow to Trade Multiple TimeframesOne timeframe for direction, one for timing. Two is a system; three is a guarantee that one of them always agrees with you.
Options 10
Buying, selling and managing option positions.
OptionsHow to Buy a Call OptionIt gives the right to buy at a fixed price until a date. The price paid is at risk in full, and the deadline is the part that catches people out.
OptionsHow to Buy a Put OptionIt gives the right to sell at a fixed price until a date. Used as a bet it needs a fall on a schedule; used as insurance it has a premium and a policy term.
OptionsHow to Close an Option EarlySelling the contract before expiry captures the value left. Holding to expiry gives away the part that is not intrinsic and adds mechanics you did not want.
OptionsHow to Read an Options ChainA grid of every strike at every expiry. It is unreadable as a whole and straightforward once you filter it to one expiry and one column.
OptionsHow to Roll an OptionClosing one contract and opening another in a single transaction. It is a new trade wearing the old one's name, and that is where the trouble starts.
OptionsHow to Sell a Cash Secured PutYou agree to buy shares at a chosen price and are paid for agreeing. It works when you truly wanted the shares at that price and fails the moment you did not.
OptionsHow to Sell a Covered CallYou own the shares, you sell someone the right to buy them at a set price, and you keep the premium either way. The cost is your upside above that price.
OptionsHow to Trade a Credit SpreadSell one option, buy a further one for protection, keep the difference. The loss is capped but several times the credit, which is what the structure hides.
OptionsHow to Trade an Iron CondorTwo credit spreads, one above and one below, sold together. It profits from a market that goes nowhere, and only one side can lose.
OptionsHow to Trade OptionsContracts with a deadline. Buying one risks a known amount; selling one can risk far more, and account approval levels exist because of that difference.
Crypto 5
Buying, storing, staking and reporting crypto.
CryptoHow to Buy Your First CryptoChoose the venue before the coin, check it accepts your jurisdiction, and size it as money you could watch halve. Custody is the step people leave until last.
CryptoHow to Report Crypto TaxesThe reporting burden comes from the number of events, not the amounts. A swap is usually a disposal, and every one needs a cost basis and a date.
CryptoHow to Stake CryptoLocking coins to support a network for a return paid in the same coin. The yield is real; so are the illiquidity and the price exposure it does not remove.
CryptoHow to Store Crypto SafelyCustody is a decision, not a default. Holding on an exchange is a claim against a company; holding the keys yourself moves every failure mode onto you.
CryptoHow to Use a Crypto ExchangeAn exchange is a venue, a custodian and a counterparty at once. The fee schedule and the jurisdiction section of the terms decide more than the interface does.
Orders and exits 12
Order types, stops, targets and scaling in and out.
OrdersHow to Place a Limit OrderAn order that trades at your price or better, and may not trade at all. You control the price and give up the certainty of a fill: that is the whole trade.
OrdersHow to Place a Market OrderIt buys certainty of execution with uncertainty of price. That is the whole trade-off, and a good one only when getting filled matters more than what you pay.
OrdersHow to Place a Stop OrderA resting order that does nothing until price reaches a level. It gets you out of positions and, less often and more usefully than most realize, into them.
OrdersHow to Read a Depth ChartA cumulative picture of the order book, drawn as two curves. It contains no information the book does not, and the axis scale changes what it appears to say.
OrdersHow to Read the Order BookThe list of resting limit orders at each price. It shows intent rather than commitment, and intent can be withdrawn in the time it takes to see it.
OrdersHow to Read Time and SalesThe record of every executed trade. Unlike the order book it shows what actually happened, and unlike a chart it shows it one transaction at a time.
OrdersHow to Scale Into a PositionBuilding a position in parts. Adding to winners and adding to losers are opposite strategies, and only one of them has a bounded outcome.
OrdersHow to Scale Out of a PositionTaking profit in parts. It feels better and, on most methods, it produces a smaller result than a single exit at the same target.
OrdersHow to Set a Price AlertThe single feature that converts watching into waiting. An alert is only useful if the level was decided before the market got near it.
OrdersHow to Set a Stop LossThe stop goes where the idea is wrong, not where the loss becomes uncomfortable. Measure the noise first, then let the distance set the size.
OrdersHow to Take ProfitsThe exit is decided before the position exists. Targets sit at levels and must clear the round-trip cost; moving one further out is a new, unrecorded trade.
OrdersHow to Use a Trailing StopA stop that follows price one way and never the other. It turns an open profit into a floor, and the distance decides whether it protects or interrupts.
Risk and psychology 15
Sizing, loss limits, drawdowns and staying out of your own way.
RiskHow to Avoid a Margin CallThe broker demanding more money or closing your positions. It is entirely preventable, and the prevention is a buffer rather than a stop.
RiskHow to Calculate Portfolio BetaThe weighted average of your holdings' betas. It answers one narrow question about market sensitivity and is regularly asked several it cannot answer.
RiskHow to Calculate Position SizeRisk divided by stop distance. The size falls out of two numbers you already decided, and the order those decisions happen in is the entire discipline.
RiskHow to Set Risk Per TradeOne number, decided once, applied to every trade. It is chosen from the losing streak you can survive rather than from the return you would like.
RiskHow to Calculate Your Win RateWinning trades divided by total trades. It is the most quoted statistic in trading and the least informative one on its own.
RiskHow to Control Trading PsychologyNot calmness under pressure. The workable version is removing decisions from the moments where they go wrong, one mechanism at a time.
RiskHow to Handle a Losing StreakA run of losses is the expected experience of any edge, and the arithmetic says so. Check the process, reduce size, and refuse to widen anything.
RiskHow to Hedge a PositionTaking an offsetting position to remove an exposure. It always costs something, and a smaller position usually achieves the same result for free.
RiskHow to Measure CorrelationHow closely two things move together. It is easy to compute, it changes constantly, and it rises toward one exactly when you were relying on it being low.
RiskHow to Measure Your ExpectancyThe average result per trade in units of what you risked. It is the one number that says whether an approach pays, and it needs every trade to mean anything.
RiskHow to Set a Daily Loss LimitOne number that ends the session regardless of what the market is doing. Its whole value is that it applies when you least want it to.
RiskHow to Stop Revenge TradingThe trade taken to undo the last one. The fix is structural rather than emotional — remove the ability to act rather than the desire to.
RiskHow to Track Your DrawdownHow far the account is below its own high-water mark. It is the measurement that decides whether a method is survivable, and it is barely taught.
RiskHow to Use Leverage SafelyLeverage multiplies the position, not the edge. The arithmetic gives less return than the multiple suggests and the full multiple of every loss.
RiskHow to Use Margin Without Blowing UpFind the maintenance level before the buying power, size backwards from it, and price the interest. Leverage magnifies drawdown more than it magnifies return.
Trading styles and markets 19
Day trading, scalping, swing trading, sessions, news and markets.
TradingHow to Calculate a Pip ValueA pip is the second-to-last decimal on most pairs. What it is worth depends on the lot size, the quote currency and your account currency, in that order.
TradingHow to Day Trade a StockOne instrument, levels marked before the open, a plan written before the position exists. Most of the session is not for trading; that is the procedure working.
TradingHow to Find Stocks to Day TradeFour filters, applied in order, run before the market opens. Start from everything and remove - a screen that returns fifty names has not filtered anything.
TradingBest Time of Day to Day Trade: What 723 Sessions of SPY ShowTo pick the best time to day trade, match your window to when volume and range are largest. In SPY that is the first hour, which carried 22.4% of the day's volume.
TradingHow to Scalp a MarketThe cost is the strategy. Work out the round trip first, trade only the hours with people in them, and require every target to clear that cost first.
TradingHow to Short a StockBorrowing shares to sell them, hoping to buy them back lower. The borrow has a daily cost, the lender can recall it, and the loss has no natural ceiling.
TradingHow to Size a Forex PositionRisk amount, divided by stop distance in pips, divided by pip value. Leverage appears nowhere in that calculation, which is what most people get wrong.
TradingHow to Start Forex TradingOne major pair, the hours it actually moves, and a size worked out in lots beforehand. The leverage on offer magnifies drawdown faster than it magnifies return.
TradingHow to Start TradingSix steps, in order, and the first one is not choosing an indicator. Size so that five losses in a row is dull, because five in a row is ordinary.
TradingHow to Swing Trade a StockDays to weeks changes everything. The cost stops mattering, the gap starts mattering, and the position is supposed to be boring for days at a time.
TradingHow to Trade a Fed DecisionThe rate itself is rarely the surprise. The statement, the projections and the press conference are where the moves come from, and they arrive in that order.
TradingHow to Trade an Earnings ReportA scheduled event with an unschedulable outcome. The move is priced in advance, the direction is not, and a position held through it has no working stop.
TradingHow to Trade ETFsUsing funds as short-horizon vehicles, not long-term holdings. Leveraged versions reset daily, so multi-day returns drift away from the advertised multiple.
TradingHow to Trade FuturesA standardized agreement to transact later. The margin is a deposit rather than a price, which is why the position is much larger than the cash it ties up.
TradingHow to Trade Penny StocksVery low-priced shares, usually of very small companies. The spread, the float and the promotion decide outcomes, and the chart shows none of the three.
TradingHow to Trade the CloseThe last hour has real volume and a different character from the rest of the day. Much of it is mechanical rebalancing rather than anybody expressing a view.
TradingHow to Trade the NewsUnscheduled news, which is a different problem from a scheduled release. You are competing with participants who receive it faster and act on it automatically.
TradingHow to Trade the OpenThe most active and least orderly period of the day. Everything about trading it well is preparation done before it starts.
TradingHow to Trade the PremarketThin, wide and driven by news. It is where the day's story forms, and it is a poor place to take positions.
Plans, testing and journals 10
Plans, routines, backtests, journals and prop firm evaluations.
Trading planHow to Automate a Trading StrategyCount the parameters before you count the profits. A grid of 60 settings holds 60 chances for one to look good by accident, and a fourth dial makes it 6,000.
Trading planHow to Backtest a Trading StrategySplit the data before you look at it. The best of 60 settings on the first half of a history ranked only 19th of 60 on the second, which a bad backtest hides.
Trading planHow to Build a Trading RoutineThe same short sequence, in the same order, every session. Its value is that it removes decisions from the moment they are hardest to make well.
Trading planHow to Build a Trading PlanSix steps and four numbers. A plan is not a philosophy: it is cost per trade, sample size, worst run and net, written down before you need them.
Trading planHow to Build a WatchlistA short list of names you have already decided how to trade. The length limit is what makes it useful; an unlimited watchlist is just the market again.
Trading planHow to Keep a Trading JournalMemory rewrites trades; a row does not. Write the reason before the outcome, record the skips, include the costs. A journal without ugly rows is not a journal.
Trading planHow to Paper Trade ProperlyTrade the size you would trade for real, subtract the costs the simulator ignores, and assume the worse fill. Paper tests the procedure, never the temperament.
Trading planHow to Pass a Prop Firm EvaluationRead the drawdown rule before the profit target, size from the daily loss limit, and cap the day before it starts. The rules decide this, not the strategy.
Trading planHow to Review Your TradesA scheduled look at what you actually did against what you said you would do. It separates process from outcome, which is the only way either becomes useful.
Trading planHow to Write a Pine ScriptThe language is small and the editor is built into the chart. What makes a script useful is having a rule worth coding before you open it.
Investing and retirement 16
Funds, dividends, retirement accounts and reading company reports.
InvestingHow to Build a Dividend PortfolioA high yield is usually a falling price. Check the payout is covered, favor growth over size, and reinvest: that is where nearly all the compounding comes from.
InvestingHow to Buy an ETFA fund that trades like a share. The expense ratio is the visible fee and the spread is the second one, so use a limit order and avoid the first minutes.
InvestingHow to Buy an Index FundPick the index first, the account second, the fund third. The fee is the only number you control, and over thirty years it decides most of the outcome.
InvestingHow to Choose an Index FundPick the index first, then compare funds tracking it on cost, tracking difference and size. Performance does not separate funds following the same index.
InvestingHow to Open a Roth IRAOpening the account and investing the money are two separate steps, and stopping after the first is the most common mistake. Automate the second one.
InvestingHow to Read a Balance SheetA photograph of what a company owns and owes on one date. It never tells you what happened; that is the other two statements' job.
InvestingHow to Read a Cash Flow StatementWhere the money actually went, split into three sections. It is the hardest statement to present favorably, which is exactly what makes it useful.
InvestingHow to Read a Fund FactsheetTwo pages, six numbers that matter, and a chart designed to be looked at first. Reading it well means starting at the back of the document.
InvestingHow to Read an Earnings ReportThe press release is written to be quoted. The statements behind it are written to be filed. Read the second before believing the first.
InvestingHow to Read an Economic CalendarA schedule of data releases with a forecast beside each one. The forecast is the important column, because price reacts to the gap rather than to the level.
InvestingHow to Read an Income StatementRevenue at the top, profit at the bottom, and a series of deductions in between. Each deduction answers a different question about how the business works.
InvestingHow to Rebalance a PortfolioSelling what has grown and buying what has not, back to a written target. The hard part is that it always feels like the wrong thing to do.
InvestingHow to Screen for Dividend StocksYield is the first filter everyone uses and the one that does most damage. A high yield is usually a falling price, and the screen shows both as one number.
InvestingHow to Screen for Growth StocksFilters that find companies expanding fast. The trap is that historical growth is the easiest thing to screen for and the hardest thing to extrapolate.
InvestingHow to Screen for Value StocksFilters that find low prices relative to something. The difficulty is that the cheapest names are usually cheap for a reason the screen cannot see.
InvestingHow to Value a StockEvery valuation is a forecast wrapped in arithmetic. The output is only as good as the assumptions, and the assumptions are where all the judgment lives.
Platforms and accounts 10
Brokers, charting platforms, screeners and staying safe.
PlatformsHow to Avoid a Trading ScamThe patterns are consistent and checkable. Verify the registration, test a withdrawal early, and treat pressure to hurry as the answer, not an obstacle.
PlatformsHow to Open a Brokerage AccountThe application takes twenty minutes, and four settings inside it matter more than the broker choice: margin, order defaults, dividends and beneficiary.
PlatformsHow to Set TradingView Alerts: Conditions, Scripts and WebhooksSet TradingView alerts on price, drawings, indicators or Pine scripts: operators, the four frequencies, expiration, message variables, webhooks and the limits that stop them.
PlatformsHow to Set Up TradingViewThe default chart is built to look impressive. A working one is a decision about what to remove, and alerts do more for most people than any indicator.
PlatformsHow to Transfer a Brokerage AccountMoving holdings from one provider to another without selling them. In kind is cheap and slow; the alternative realizes every gain you hold.
PlatformsHow to Use a Stock ScreenerA screener narrows thousands of names to a list you can read. The filters are easy; deciding what you are looking for before you open it is the whole skill.
PlatformsHow to Use Claude for Trading (and What It Can't Do)Claude can turn a written trading rule into Python or Pine Script and list the decisions hidden in it. It has no live prices and can be wrong, so run and check every answer.
PlatformsHow to Use FinvizA screener with a wide free tier and a huge number of filters. The filters are easy; the discipline is refusing to add any that were not in your sentence.
PlatformsHow to Use ThinkorswimA professional-grade desktop platform with more capability than most people use. The work is deciding which fraction of it belongs on your screen.
PlatformsHow to Verify a BrokerFour checks, ten minutes, done before any money moves. Registration is a minimum standard, not an endorsement, and the details are where problems hide.
More guides 2
More guidesHow to Learn Trading: The Order to Learn ItLearn trading in five stages: orders and costs, sizing, the bare chart, one written method, then 100 practice trades. Each stage has a pass mark.
More guidesHow to Stop FOMO TradingFOMO trading is buying a move after it has already left. The fix is a rule, written in advance, for when a missed trade is simply gone.
About these pages
The glossary explains what things are. These pages are procedures — numbered steps you can execute, with the preconditions stated up front and a check at the end so you can tell whether it worked.
Every step is an instruction. Nothing here says “consider your risk tolerance”. A step you cannot act on without deciding something first is not a step, and the gate these pages pass rejects it.
157 guides written so far. Educational, not financial advice.