Learn the Markets

1) Pick the asset you've studied. 2) Choose direction — Buy (long, profit if it rises) or Sell (short, profit if it falls). 3) Choose your size — how much money the position controls. 4) Choose the order type — right now (market) or at your price (limit). 5) Review and confirm. The order then becomes a position when it fills, and you close it later with the opposite action.

Every market shows two prices. The bid is the highest price buyers will pay; the ask (or offer) is the lowest price sellers will accept. You buy at the ask and sell at the bid, so the gap between them — the spread — is a built-in cost you pay to enter. Busy markets (major forex pairs, big stocks) have tight spreads; quiet ones cost more to trade.

A market order executes immediately at the best available price. Speed is guaranteed, the exact price is not — in fast or thin markets the fill can land away from the quote you saw (slippage). Best for liquid markets when getting in or out matters more than the last few cents.

A limit order waits as a pending order until the market reaches your price. A buy limit sits below the current price and fills when price drops to it; a sell limit sits above and fills when price rises to it — always at your limit or better. The trade-off: the price may never get there, and the order simply never fills. Try one on the Practice page — set a limit price and watch it wait.

A stop order is the mirror of a limit: it triggers once price moves through a level, then executes as a market order. Its most important job is the stop-loss — a standing exit that caps how much a losing position can take from you. A stop-limit triggers the same way but then insists on a limit price (risking no fill at all in a fast fall). Professionals decide the stop before they enter, never after.

A resting order is working until it fills, is cancelled by you, or expires — brokers let you choose a day order (dies at the close) or good-til-cancelled (GTC). Large orders can fill in pieces (partial fills). Until it fills, a pending order costs nothing and can be cancelled freely — exactly how the Practice page's pending orders behave.

A call option is the right (not the obligation) to buy an asset at a fixed strike price before an expiry date, bought for an upfront premium. If the price climbs well above the strike, the call gains value; if it doesn't, the option expires worthless and the buyer loses only the premium. Selling calls is the other side of that bet — collecting premium but carrying large risk if price runs.

A put option is the right to sell at the strike price before expiry — it gains value when the market falls, which is why puts are also used as insurance on positions someone already holds. Same economics as calls in reverse: a buyer's maximum loss is the premium paid; a seller's risk is far larger. Options add time-decay and volatility to the puzzle — study them well before ever trading one.

Decide what fraction of the account one losing trade may cost — many traders use 1–2% — then work backwards: risk ÷ distance to your stop = position size. Example: $10,000 account, 1% rule = $100 risk; if the stop sits 5% away, the position is $2,000. Sizing this way means no single trade — or losing streak — can knock you out. It matters more than any entry technique.

Every concept above can be tried risk-free on the Practice page: market buys and sells, short positions, pending limit orders and position sizing — with a virtual balance you choose. The money is not real and nothing can ever be won or earned; it exists so mistakes are free while you learn.