Trading academy

Learn the mechanics before you risk the money

Four strategy templates used by real desks, the risk rules that keep them survivable, and a simulated account with $100,000 priced off the same live market feed that powers the rest of this site. Educational only — nothing here is investment advice.

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The course

6 modules · 11 lessons · quiz after each module. Progress is saved on this device.

Course progress0/11 lessons · 0%

The order book and the spread · 6 min

Every listed share trades on an order book: a queue of bids (buyers, highest first) and asks (sellers, lowest first). The best bid and best ask are the only two prices that matter at the moment you trade; the gap between them is the spread, and it is the first cost you pay.

A market order crosses the spread immediately — you take whatever the other side is offering. A limit order joins the book at your price and only fills if the market comes to you. Market orders buy certainty of execution; limit orders buy certainty of price. You cannot have both.

Liquidity is depth, not price. A large-cap index constituent may show thousands of shares at the touch; a small-cap may show a hundred. Trading size in a thin book moves the price against you before your order is done — this is slippage, and it is invisible on a chart.

Order types you should know · 5 min

Market: fill now at the prevailing price. Use when getting out matters more than the last cent.

Limit: fill at your price or better, or not at all. Use for entries where a worse price invalidates the idea.

Stop (stop-loss): a resting instruction that becomes a market order when a trigger price trades. It caps intent, not outcome — in a gap the fill can be far below the trigger.

Stop-limit: becomes a limit order at the trigger, so it protects your price but can leave you holding a falling position unfilled.

Time in force decides how long the order lives: day orders expire at the close, GTC orders rest until filled or cancelled.

Module quiz

You place a market buy in a thinly traded stock. What is the main risk?
The order will not fillSlippage — you fill across several worse pricesThe exchange will reject itYou pay no spread
A stop-loss guarantees you exit at the trigger price.
TrueFalse

Strategy templates

Trend following

Weeks to months

Buy instruments already making higher highs and higher lows; exit when the trend breaks.

Entry: Price above the 200-day moving average and a fresh 50-day high.
Exit: Close below the 50-day moving average, or a trailing stop at 2× average true range.
What goes wrong: Whipsaws in sideways markets: many small losses funding a few large winners.

Mean reversion

Days

Fade short-term overreactions in liquid names that remain in a long-term uptrend.

Entry: RSI(2) under 10 while price is still above the 200-day moving average.
Exit: Close above the 5-day moving average, or a hard time stop after 5 sessions.
What goes wrong: Catching a genuine breakdown — the strategy is wrong exactly when news is real.

Quality value

Years

Own profitable businesses bought below their earnings power and hold through cycles.

Entry: Free-cash-flow yield above the market, net debt/EBITDA under 2×, growing revenue.
Exit: Thesis breaks: margins compress structurally, or the valuation gap closes.
What goes wrong: Value traps and long dead periods where the price does nothing for years.

Index core, satellite tilt

Decades

Hold a broad index as the core and express views with small satellite positions.

Entry: 80–90% broad index, 10–20% split into no more than five conviction names.
Exit: Rebalance on a schedule, not on a feeling — quarterly or annually.
What goes wrong: Satellites quietly growing into the core and concentrating unmeasured risk.

Risk management

Risk a fixed fraction, not a fixed feeling

Cap the loss on any single idea at 0.5–1% of the account. Position size = (account × risk %) ÷ (entry − stop). The stop sets the size; the size never sets the stop.

Know your maximum drawdown tolerance

A 50% drawdown needs a 100% gain to recover. Decide the drawdown you can hold through before you size up, and treat it as a hard limit that reduces exposure automatically.

Correlation is hidden concentration

Ten technology names is one bet, not ten. Check how your holdings moved together in the last drawdown, not in a calm market.

Costs and tax compound against you

Spread, commission, FX conversion and short-term tax treatment are certain; returns are not. High turnover has to clear that hurdle before it earns anything.

Write the plan before the position

Entry, stop, target, size and invalidation, written down first. If you cannot state what would make you wrong, it is not a trade — it is a hope.

Live demo portfolio

Practise the rules above against real market prices. Orders fill off the same live quote feed used across the site — simulated cash, real prices.

Simulated · no real money

Paper trading desk

Practise with $100,000 of simulated cash against live market prices. Nothing here settles, costs or earns real money. New to this? Start with the trading academy.

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How the demo account works

You start with $100,000 of simulated cash — no deposit, no card, no real money.
Market orders fill at the current live quote; limit orders fill only if the market already crosses your limit.
Cash, average cost, realised and unrealised P/L are tracked exactly as a broker would.
Reset back to $100,000 at any time to run a fresh experiment.
When you're ready for real orders, link your own brokerage account from the dashboard.

Educational content only. Global Connect Hub is not a broker, is not regulated as an investment adviser, and nothing on this page is a personal recommendation. Capital at risk: you can lose more than you expect, and past performance says nothing about future returns.