Learn to invest
Short, plain-English lessons. Practise each idea in the terminal with virtual money — nothing here is advice.
1 · Investing basics
Stocks are part-ownership of a company. You make or lose money as the share price moves, and some companies pay dividends. Bonds are loans to a government or company that pay interest; their prices fall when interest rates rise. Funds and ETFs hold baskets of stocks or bonds, so a single purchase spreads your money across many holdings.
Over long periods, compounding does most of the work: returns earn returns. Costs compound too — a 1% annual fee takes a large share of growth over decades, which is why low-cost index funds are popular.
2 · Order types
| Order | What it does | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Market | Fills immediately at the best available price. | Speed matters more than the exact price. |
| Limit | Buys at or below / sells at or above your price. May never fill. | You want price control. |
| Stop | Becomes a market order once the price touches your stop. | Limiting losses or entering on a breakout. |
Time in force: Day orders expire after 24 hours; GTC (good till cancelled) orders stay working until filled or cancelled.
3 · Options 101
An option is a contract giving the right, not the obligation, to buy (call) or sell (put) 100 shares at a fixed strike price until expiry. The buyer pays a premium; the most a buyer can lose is that premium.
- Call buyer profits if the stock finishes above strike + premium.
- Put buyer profits if the stock finishes below strike − premium.
- Delta — how much the option moves for a $1 move in the stock. Theta — value lost per day from time decay. Vega — sensitivity to volatility. Gamma — how fast delta changes.
On this platform, option prices come from a Black-Scholes model using each stock's historical volatility; contracts are cash-settled at intrinsic value on expiry. Real options markets quote prices from market makers and can differ substantially. Read the official Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options and the Options Industry Council courses before trading real options.
4 · Risk & diversification
Diversification means not relying on a single company, sector or asset class. A common rule of thumb is to keep any single stock below 5–10% of a portfolio. Position size so that a normal bad day is uncomfortable, not catastrophic.
- Asset allocation — the split between stocks, bonds and cash — explains most of a portfolio's long-run behaviour.
- Rebalancing periodically brings weights back to target.
- Leverage and options magnify both gains and losses.
Your portfolio page shows allocation by holding and by sector.
5 · Glossary
Lowest price a seller accepts / highest price a buyer pays. The gap is the spread.
Exchange-traded fund: a basket of assets that trades like a single stock.
Share price × shares outstanding.
How much a price typically moves; annualised standard deviation of returns.
Income as a percentage of price (dividend yield, bond yield).
Fall from a peak to a trough.
Volatility implied by an option's price.
One hundredth of a percent (0.01%).
6 · Investor protection
Before opening a real account anywhere, check the firm is authorised with its regulator and read its disclosures. Useful tools:
Warning signs of investment fraud: guaranteed returns, pressure to act fast, unregistered sellers, claimed partnerships you cannot verify, and requests to pay in crypto or gift cards.