Just The Markets

Free trading and investing courses

Short courses taught lesson by lesson, with worked examples on hypothetical numbers and a quiz at the end of every lesson that marks itself. No sign-up and nothing to pay.

  1. Investing · Beginner · about 50 min

    Mise en Place for Money: A Beginner Portfolio Course

    Savers who have money in the bank and no portfolio yet, and want the plan settled before they buy a first fund or stock.

    1. 01Investment Goals and Time Horizon, Set Before the First Buy
    2. 02The Core and Satellite Portfolio: Funds First, Stocks Second
    3. 03Position Sizing for Investors: Setting a Weight Cap
    4. 04Rebalancing Rules and Sell Rules for a First Portfolio

  2. Economics · Beginner · about 49 min

    Boom, Bust, Repeat: A Course on How Markets Cycle

    Investors and traders who want to understand why stock prices and the economy turn at different times, and what to do about it.

    1. 01Business Cycle and Market Cycle: Why They Run Out of Step
    2. 02Why Stocks Lead the Economy at the Turns
    3. 03Credit Spreads and Sector Returns Across the Economic Cycle
    4. 04Investing Through Market Cycles With Rules You Set Now

  3. Economics · Beginner · about 50 min

    Macro Weather for Stock Pickers: Economic Data and Stocks

    Stock investors who see the economic calendar every week and want to know which releases should change how they look at their own holdings.

    1. 01The Economic Releases That Move Markets
    2. 02Interest Rates, Inflation and What They Do to Stock Valuations
    3. 03Jobs, Spending and PMI: Economic Data That Reaches Earnings
    4. 04A Macro Checklist for Stocks: The Dollar, Credit and Rates

  4. Earnings · Intermediate · about 51 min

    Beat, Raise and Still Drop: An Earnings Reaction Course

    Traders and investors who hold stocks through quarterly reports and want to understand why the reaction so often disagrees with the headline.

    1. 01What an Earnings Release Reports and What It Is Measured Against
    2. 02Reading Earnings Guidance: Ranges, Midpoints and Raises
    3. 03The Earnings Implied Move and the Size of the Reaction
    4. 04Post-Earnings Drift, Gaps and Rechecking a Position

  5. Investing · Intermediate · about 54 min

    What's It Actually Worth? A Stock Valuation Course

    Investors who read P/E ratios on a quote page and want to build and defend their own estimate of what a stock is worth.

    1. 01Valuation Multiples and What Each One Assumes
    2. 02A Discounted Cash Flow Model, Built Step by Step
    3. 03Margin of Safety in Valuation, and Reading What the Price Implies
    4. 04Valuing Unprofitable Companies: Sales, Margins and Time

  6. Swing Trading · Intermediate · about 50 min

    Musical Chairs for Sectors: Following Market Leadership

    Swing traders and active investors who pick individual stocks and want to choose which part of the market to hunt in first.

    1. 01The Stock Market Sectors and What Drives Each One
    2. 02Relative Strength Ratios Between a Sector and the Market
    3. 03Rotating a Watchlist Toward the Leading Sectors
    4. 04When Sector Rotation Signals Mislead

  7. Options · Intermediate · about 53 min

    After the Covered Call: Option Spreads, Step by Step

    Traders who understand single calls and puts, hold spread approval on their account, and want defined-risk trades they can size in advance.

    1. 01Vertical Spreads: Choosing the Width and the Strikes
    2. 02Time Spreads in Options: Calendars and Diagonals in Practice
    3. 03Iron Condor vs Butterfly: Two Ways to Sell a Quiet Market
    4. 04Managing an Options Spread: Close, Roll or Leave It

  8. Stock Trading · Intermediate · about 53 min

    Rules First, Money Later: Test a Trading Strategy

    Traders with a stock trading idea they want to test on price history, then on paper and at small size, before putting real money behind it.

    1. 01Turning a Trading Idea Into Rules a Backtest Can Run
    2. 02Backtest Costs and Biases: Slippage, Survivorship, Look-Ahead
    3. 03Reading Backtest Results: Expectancy, Drawdown and Streaks
    4. 04From Backtest to Live: Paper Trading and Small Size

How the courses work

Each course opens with an overview: who it suits, what to have open beside it, and what it leaves out. Many ask for something you can pull up for free, such as a company's latest earnings release, a stock's quote page or an economic calendar. The lessons run in order and each one ends with multiple-choice questions, marked the moment you pick an answer, with the reasoning shown. Nothing is recorded.

New to investing? Start with Mise en Place for Money, which builds a first portfolio from the ground up. Already trading and ready for more than single calls and puts? After the Covered Call covers spreads, calendars and butterflies. For practice between lessons, the quizzes and games put the same ideas into market situations.