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Money Basics
Budgets, emergency funds, how investing works, and the risks of options and leverage — in plain English.
- 14 lessons
- 49 minutes
- 4 modules
- Free
What you’ll learn
- Build a money plan before risking capital
- Understand ownership, diversification and order types
- Recognize the specific risks of options and leverage
Module 1 Build a Foundation Before You Invest
Your financial plan starts with the money you need for everyday life.
- Lesson 1: Give Each Dollar a JobWrite down what comes in, what goes out and what you owe, so every dollar has a job before any of it goes near a trade.3 min Completed
- Lesson 2: Build Breathing Room and Understand Your DebtAn emergency reserve keeps a surprise from forcing a bad sale, and knowing what your debt costs tells you whether investing should come next.3 min Completed
- Lesson 3: Match Your Investments to Your TimelineWhen you need the money and how much loss you can absorb should shape what you invest in. Inflation and compounding explain why time matters.3 min Completed
Module 2 Understand What You’re Buying
Learn the everyday language of investing before choosing a product.
- Lesson 4: Know the Difference Between Stocks, Bonds and FundsStocks are ownership, bonds are loans and funds are baskets. An account is only the container that holds them.3 min Completed
- Lesson 5: Spread Risk and Pay Attention to CostsDiversification lowers the chance that one disappointment dominates your finances, and small annual costs add up. Neither removes risk.3 min Completed
- Lesson 6: Read Common Market Terms in Plain EnglishTickers, market cap, bid and ask, volume, gains and losses, long and short: the everyday vocabulary on every quote screen.4 min Completed
- Lesson 7: Separate a Business Measure From a Trading SignalRevenue, earnings and P/E describe a business. Support, resistance and moving averages describe past prices. Neither predicts the future on its own.3 min Completed
- Lesson 8: Understand What an Order Can and Cannot PromiseMarket, limit, stop and stop-limit orders each trade one risk for another. None of them can promise the exact price you want.4 min Completed
Module 3 Recognize Risks That Can Overwhelm a Small Account
Understanding the downside matters more than imagining the best possible outcome.
- Lesson 9: Options Have Deadlines and Can Lose Their Entire Purchase PriceAn option is a contract with a deadline. Buyers can lose everything they paid, sellers can face very large losses, and being right about direction isn’t enough.6 min Completed
- Lesson 10: Treat the Greeks as Estimates of SensitivityDelta, gamma, theta and vega estimate how an option’s price may respond to price, time and volatility. They change constantly and promise nothing.3 min Completed
- Lesson 11: Leverage Magnifies Losses as Well as GainsMargin and leveraged ETFs increase exposure relative to the money you put in. They magnify losses, add costs and can behave unexpectedly over several days.3 min Completed
- Lesson 12: Write Down the Loss You Can Afford Before Considering a TradeDecide your maximum affordable loss before you trade, size from it, and treat a losing streak as a reason to review rather than to bet bigger.6 min Completed
- Lesson 13: Build a Repeatable Routine and Be Willing to Do NothingStart with your plan, learn how a product can lose money before you buy it, watch for scams, and remember that doing nothing is always an option.3 min Completed
Module 4 Continue Learning From Primary Sources
These resources explain product mechanics and investor protections in greater detail.
Educational content, not investment advice. Lessons describe how markets and models tend to behave. They don’t tell anyone what to buy, sell or hold. Interactive examples use illustrative sample data, and simulator results are simulated — not actual trading. Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors.
Risk disclosureCharacteristics and Risks of Standardized Options (OCC) (opens in a new tab)
Data intelligence.
Visualization with context.
StratosHedge is a data intelligence company focused on organizing and visualizing market information. Our charts, analytics, estimates, alerts, and educational content are provided for informational and educational purposes only. They are not financial, investment, tax, or legal advice, or recommendations to buy, sell, or hold any security.
Investing involves risk. Investing in stocks can result in the loss of some or all money invested. Options involve substantial risk: buyers can lose the entire premium paid, and certain strategies can produce losses greater than the initial investment. Uncovered call writing can expose investors to potentially unlimited losses.
Market data and model estimates may be delayed, incomplete, or inaccurate. You are responsible for your investment decisions.
Read our policies and risk disclosures