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Reading path · 120 lessons in 10 steps · About 10 hours 50 minutes in total, in short sittings

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About this reading path

• Who it is for

  This page is for readers who are new to markets and want to know where to begin. It suits you if words such as bid, ask, candlestick or open interest are new or only half familiar, or if you have watched charts without being sure what they show.

  Nothing here is a recommendation to trade.

• How the path works

  This page simply suggests one order that builds each idea on the one before it.

  There are ten steps. Each step is one module, in the order the Learn hub lists them, and each lesson is marked as a five- to seven-minute read.

• Time and pace

  The lessons are free to read, in any order, as often as you like.

  The times below add up the reading times shown at the top of each lesson, and the total is rounded to the nearest ten minutes. You can read one step per sitting or one lesson a day.

The ten steps

The path starts with how markets and orders work, then how a chart is set up, so that the lessons after that can be followed on a chart of your own. Step 5 (order flow and auction market theory) and Step 8 (options) are marked Intermediate; you can read them in order or come back after the beginner steps.

1. 1

   Module 1 · Foundations

   Step 1: How markets and orders work

   About 49 minutes·9 lessons

   What a market is, what can be traded, how orders are matched and what trading costs. Later lessons cover exchanges and clearing, quotes, margin, account types and questions to ask a broker.

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   1. How Markets Work: Bids, Asks, Spread and Liquidity · About 6 minutes
   2. What You Can Trade: Stocks, ETFs, Futures and Options · About 7 minutes
   3. Order Types Explained: Market, Limit, Stop and Bracket · About 6 minutes
   4. Trading Sessions and Costs: Hours, Fees and Slippage · About 5 minutes
   5. Exchanges, Brokers and Clearing: Who Does What in a Trade · About 5 minutes
   6. Reading a Quote: NBBO, Level 1 and Level 2 · About 5 minutes
   7. Leverage and Margin Across Stocks, Futures and Options · About 5 minutes
   8. Account Types and the Pattern Day Trader Rule · About 5 minutes
   9. Choosing a Broker: Questions to Ask, Not Answers to Copy · About 5 minutes
2. 2

   Module 2 · Charting

   Step 2: Setting up and reading a chart

   About 40 minutes·8 lessons

   How a charting platform lays out a chart, what symbols, timeframes and sessions change, how chart types, drawing tools and indicator settings work, how saved layouts and watchlists keep a setup consistent, and what alerts and bar replay can and cannot do for practice.

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   1. Charting Platforms and the Chart Layout: What Is on the Screen · About 5 minutes
   2. Symbols, Timeframes and Sessions on a Chart · About 5 minutes
   3. Chart Types: Candles, Bars, Lines and Their Settings · About 5 minutes
   4. Drawing Tools: Lines, Zones and Keeping Charts Clean · About 5 minutes
   5. Adding Indicators and Reading Their Settings · About 5 minutes
   6. Saving Layouts, Templates and Watchlists · About 5 minutes
   7. Alerts as Reminders of Your Own Levels · About 5 minutes
   8. Bar Replay for Practice: Uses and Limits · About 5 minutes
3. 3

   Module 3 · Reading price

   Step 3: Reading a price chart

   About 70 minutes·13 lessons

   How a candlestick is built, what common candle shapes describe, how timeframes relate, how swings, levels, trends and patterns are named, and what gaps, breakouts and Fibonacci ratios measure. Later lessons cover alternative bar types, why chart patterns often fail, and futures sessions and session settings on charts.

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   1. Candlestick Anatomy: Open, High, Low, Close and Wicks · About 5 minutes
   2. Reading Candlesticks as Behavior: Doji, Hammer, Engulfing · About 6 minutes
   3. Timeframes and Multi-Timeframe Analysis Explained · About 5 minutes
   4. Market Structure Explained: Swings, BOS and CHoCH · About 7 minutes
   5. Support and Resistance Zones: How Traders Mark Levels · About 6 minutes
   6. Chart Patterns Explained: Flags, Triangles, Double Tops · About 6 minutes
   7. Trends, Trendlines and Channels: How Traders Draw Direction · About 5 minutes
   8. Price Gaps Explained: Opening, Breakaway and Exhaustion Gaps · About 5 minutes
   9. Breakouts, False Breakouts and Retests in Price Action · About 5 minutes
   10. Fibonacci Retracements and Extensions: What the Ratios Measure · About 5 minutes
   11. Heikin-Ashi, Renko and Range Bars: Charts That Change the Bars Themselves · About 5 minutes
   12. Why Chart Patterns Fail: Base Rates, Hindsight and Context · About 5 minutes
   13. Futures Sessions and Timeframes: Nearly 24 Hours, Different Characters · About 5 minutes
4. 4

   Module 4 · Volume and indicators

   Step 4: Volume and indicators

   About 67 minutes·12 lessons

   What volume and open interest count, how VWAP is calculated, and what moving averages, oscillators, MACD and volatility bands measure. Later lessons cover divergence, anchored VWAP, volume-based lines, overfitting and repainting.

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   1. Trading Volume Explained: Volume vs Open Interest · About 7 minutes
   2. What Is VWAP? Session vs Anchored VWAP Explained · About 7 minutes
   3. Technical Indicators Explained: MA, RSI, MACD, Bollinger, ATR · About 6 minutes
   4. Moving Averages in Depth: SMA, EMA, Lag and Crossovers · About 5 minutes
   5. RSI and Stochastic Oscillators: What Overbought Really Means · About 5 minutes
   6. MACD Explained: Lines, Histogram and What Crosses Mean · About 5 minutes
   7. Bollinger Bands, Keltner Channels and ATR: Measuring Volatility · About 5 minutes
   8. Divergence in Depth: Regular, Hidden and Why Most Go Nowhere · About 5 minutes
   9. Anchored VWAP: Averaging From a Chosen Starting Point · About 5 minutes
   10. OBV, Accumulation/Distribution and Relative Volume · About 5 minutes
   11. Overfitting and Repainting: When Indicator Results Look Too Good · About 5 minutes
   12. Putting Volume Tools Together: One Session, Three Tools, One Plan · About 7 minutes
5. 5

   Module 5 · Order flow and auction market theory

   Step 5: Order flow and auction market theory

   About 102 minutes·17 lessonsIntermediate

   How auction theory describes balance and value, how volume and time are mapped by price, how sessions are labeled, what the order book shows, and how a session can be replayed in words. Later lessons cover TPO profiles, the initial balance and range extension, excess, poor highs and lows and single prints, delta and imbalance on a bid/ask volume chart, reference prices from earlier sessions, why the visible order book can mislead, composite profiles, cumulative delta, liquidity sweeps, overnight inventory and three fictional session replays.

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   1. Auction Market Theory Basics: Balance, Value, Rotation · About 6 minutes
   2. Volume Profile Explained: POC, Value Area, HVN, LVN · About 6 minutes
   3. Opening Types and Day Types: A Descriptive Guide · About 6 minutes
   4. Order Flow Basics: DOM, Time and Sales, Delta · About 7 minutes
   5. How to Replay a Trading Session: A Worked Example · About 6 minutes
   6. TPO Profile Basics: Letters, Periods and Profile Shape · About 7 minutes
   7. Initial Balance and Range Extension: How They Are Measured · About 7 minutes
   8. Excess, Poor Highs and Lows, and Single Prints Explained · About 7 minutes
   9. Reading Delta and Imbalance on a Bid/Ask Volume Chart · About 7 minutes
   10. Reference Levels from Prior Sessions: High, Low, Close and Value · About 6 minutes
   11. Reading the DOM Honestly: Spoofing, Icebergs and Hidden Size · About 7 minutes
   12. Composite Profiles and Value Migration: Reading Several Sessions Together · About 5 minutes
   13. Bid/Ask Volume Charts: Reading Volume at the Bid and Ask by Price · About 5 minutes
   14. Cumulative Delta and Its Limits · About 5 minutes
   15. Liquidity, Sweeps and Stop Runs: A Descriptive Look · About 5 minutes
   16. Overnight Inventory and the Overnight High and Low · About 5 minutes
   17. Three Fictional Session Replays: Applying Auction Market Theory End to End · About 5 minutes
6. 6

   Module 6 · Risk, process, and mindset

   Step 6: Risk, process and mindset

   About 95 minutes·17 lessons

   The arithmetic of position size and drawdown, how plans and journals are kept, how to write your own trading plan, a pre-trade checklist, a journal of your reasoning and a weekly review, common psychological traps, how news affects volatility, and the warning signs in trading promotions. Later lessons cover sizing in futures contracts, risk of ruin, gap risk, general tax terms, reviewing your own trade statistics and common scams.

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   1. Risk Management Arithmetic: Position Size, Risk-Reward, Drawdown · About 6 minutes
   2. Trade Management: What Happens Between Entry and Exit · About 8 minutes
   3. Trading Plans, Journaling and Honest Backtesting · About 6 minutes
   4. Building a Trading Plan Document · About 5 minutes
   5. A Pre-Trade Checklist: Slowing Down Before Acting · About 5 minutes
   6. Journaling Your Reasoning, Not Just Your Results · About 5 minutes
   7. The Weekly Review: Process Before Outcome · About 5 minutes
   8. Trading Psychology: FOMO, Loss Aversion and Routines · About 5 minutes
   9. Economic Events and Headlines: Volatility, Not Instructions · About 5 minutes
   10. How to Spot Trading Gurus and Guaranteed-Return Claims · About 6 minutes
   11. Sizing Futures Positions in Contracts: Ticks, Tick Value and Whole Numbers · About 5 minutes
   12. Risk of Ruin: How Losing Streaks and Bet Size Interact · About 5 minutes
   13. Overnight and Gap Risk: When Prices Jump Past a Stop · About 5 minutes
   14. Tax Concepts for Traders: Words to Know Before You Ask a Professional · About 5 minutes
   15. Reviewing Your Own Trade Statistics: Expectancy, MAE and MFE · About 5 minutes
   16. Common Trading Scams: Beyond Gurus · About 5 minutes
   17. Capstone: One Method, Start to Finish · About 9 minutes
7. 7

   Module 7 · Stocks and ETFs

   Step 7: Stocks and ETFs

   About 36 minutes·7 lessons

   How shares are quoted and matched, what happens outside regular hours, how short selling and corporate actions work, how ETFs are built, and how sectors and indexes summarize the market.

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   1. How a Stock Trades: Exchanges, Market Makers and Auctions · About 6 minutes
   2. Premarket and After-Hours Trading: Extended Hours Explained · About 5 minutes
   3. Short Selling Explained: Borrowing, Fees and Short Squeezes · About 5 minutes
   4. Stock Splits, Dividends and Corporate Actions Explained · About 5 minutes
   5. How ETFs Work: Creation, Redemption, NAV and Costs · About 5 minutes
   6. Leveraged and Inverse ETFs: Daily Reset and Volatility Decay · About 5 minutes
   7. Sectors, Indexes and Market Breadth: Reading the Whole Market · About 5 minutes
8. 8

   Module 8 · Options

   Step 8: Options

   About 65 minutes·13 lessonsIntermediate

   What calls and puts are, how premium splits into intrinsic and time value, how payoff diagrams are drawn, what the Greeks and implied volatility describe, and what happens at expiration. Later lessons cover straddles and strangles, skew, earnings, same-day options, option product types, vertical spreads, covered calls and cash-secured puts.

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   1. Options Basics: Calls, Puts, Strikes and Expiration · About 5 minutes
   2. Option Premium: Intrinsic Value, Time Value and Moneyness · About 5 minutes
   3. Option Payoff Diagrams: Long and Short Calls and Puts · About 5 minutes
   4. The Option Greeks in Plain Language: Delta, Gamma, Theta, Vega · About 5 minutes
   5. Implied Volatility and the Expected Move Explained · About 5 minutes
   6. Exercise, Assignment and Settlement: What Happens at Expiration · About 5 minutes
   7. Straddles and Strangles: Payoffs Built From Volatility · About 5 minutes
   8. Volatility Skew and Term Structure: The Shape of Implied Volatility · About 5 minutes
   9. Earnings and IV Crush: Why Options Can Lose Value After the News · About 5 minutes
   10. 0DTE Options: How Same-Day Expirations Behave · About 5 minutes
   11. Index Options, ETF Options and Options on Futures Compared · About 5 minutes
   12. Vertical Spreads: Defined-Risk Payoffs With Two Strikes · About 5 minutes
   13. Covered Calls and Cash-Secured Puts: Payoff Shapes and Trade-Offs · About 5 minutes
9. 9

   Module 9 · Futures

   Step 9: Futures

   About 62 minutes·12 lessons

   How a futures contract is specified, how margin and daily settlement work, how contracts expire and roll, and how equity index and commodity contracts compare. Later lessons cover interest rate and currency futures, calendar spreads, the Commitments of Traders report, contract sizes, and seasonality and its limits.

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   1. Futures Contract Specifications: Size, Tick, Multiplier and Months · About 6 minutes
   2. Futures Margin and Daily Mark-to-Market Explained · About 5 minutes
   3. Futures Expiration, Rollover and Continuous Charts · About 5 minutes
   4. Futures Trading Hours, Settlement Prices and Price Limits · About 5 minutes
   5. Equity Index Futures: E-mini and Micro Contracts Compared · About 6 minutes
   6. Commodity Futures: How Crude Oil and Gold Contracts Work · About 5 minutes
   7. Interest Rate Futures: Treasury and SOFR Contracts Explained · About 5 minutes
   8. Currency Futures: How They Compare With Spot Forex · About 5 minutes
   9. Calendar Spreads and the Forward Curve in Futures · About 5 minutes
   10. The Commitments of Traders Report: Who Holds Futures Positions · About 5 minutes
   11. Micro vs Standard Futures Contracts: Same Market, Different Size · About 5 minutes
   12. Seasonality in Futures: Patterns, Causes and Limits · About 5 minutes
10. 10

    Module 10 · Fundamentals and macro

    Step 10: Fundamentals and macro

    About 60 minutes·12 lessons

    How company reports and valuation ratios are read, what central banks and the main economic releases measure, how the yield curve, the dollar, oil and gold connect, and where the original documents live.

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    1. Reading Company Financial Statements: A Plain-Language Guide · About 5 minutes
    2. Earnings Reports and Guidance: Estimates, Surprises and Calls · About 5 minutes
    3. Valuation Ratios Explained: P/E, EV/EBITDA, P/S and Yield · About 5 minutes
    4. Revenue, Margins and Earnings Quality: Reading Beyond EPS · About 5 minutes
    5. Central Banks and Interest Rates: How Policy Reaches Markets · About 5 minutes
    6. Inflation Reports: CPI, PCE and PPI Explained · About 5 minutes
    7. The Jobs Report: Payrolls, Unemployment and Wages · About 5 minutes
    8. GDP, PMI and Retail Sales: Measuring Economic Growth · About 5 minutes
    9. The Yield Curve: Shape, Inversion and What It Reflects · About 5 minutes
    10. The Dollar, Oil and Gold: How Macro Markets Connect · About 5 minutes
    11. Forex and Crypto Basics: Pairs, Pips and 24-Hour Markets · About 5 minutes
    12. Reading Primary Sources: Filings, Releases and Exchange Notices · About 5 minutes

The trading glossary defines every linked term in plain words and can be read alongside any step.

Check yourself

Reflect on these; there is no score.

1. Which of the ten steps covers ideas you have already met, and which covers ideas that are completely new to you?
2. Why might the charting lessons in Step 2 come before the lessons on reading price in Step 3?
3. After reading a lesson, can you explain its main term to someone else in one or two sentences, without looking?

Looking for outside reading? The Resources page lists free outside sites for charting, economic data, regulators and education.