Learn to trade
Free guides on how the markets work, how to measure the risk of every trade and how to read a chart, from the first steps to technical analysis.
Start with: What Is Trading? A Beginner's Guide to Financial Markets →Start here
What trading is, how the markets work and how a funded account works.
What Is Trading? A Beginner's Guide to Financial Markets
Trading means buying and selling assets to profit from price changes. Learn the main markets, trading styles and why managing risk comes first.
8 min read →Forex vs Futures vs Spot Trading: The Key Differences
Spot, forex and futures trading compared: what you actually trade, expiry dates, leverage and margin, going long or short, and the costs of each.
8 min read →What Is a Funded Trading Account and How Does It Work?
How funded trading accounts work: the evaluation, the funded stage, payouts, what it costs, and what to check before you choose a prop firm.
8 min read →Pips, Lots, Contract Size and Leverage Explained
Learn what pips, points and lots are, how contract size turns a price move into profit or loss, and how leverage and margin work, with worked examples.
8 min read →Bid, Ask and Spread: What They Are and Why They Matter
The bid is the price you can sell at, the ask is the price you can buy at, and the spread is the gap. See how it affects your fills, stops and targets.
8 min read →Order Types Explained: Market, Limit, Stop Loss, Take Profit
How market, limit, stop, stop-limit, stop loss, take profit and trailing stop orders work, how each one fills, and where traders place their stops.
8 min read →Market Hours and Trading Sessions: Forex, Gold and Crypto
When do forex, gold and crypto trade? See the Sydney, Tokyo, London and New York sessions in UTC, the overlaps, weekend gaps and how each session behaves.
8 min read →Risk & money management
Measure the risk of every trade and size your positions from it.
Money Management: How to Measure Risk on Every Trade
How to measure trading risk: risk per trade in percent and dollars, R-multiples, total open risk, drawdown recovery math, losing streaks and expectancy.
8 min read →How to Calculate Position Size From Your Stop Loss
A step-by-step method to calculate position size from your risk and stop loss, with worked examples for EUR/USD, gold and BTC on a $100,000 account.
8 min read →Risk-Reward Ratio and Win Rate: The Math of Trading
What the risk-reward ratio is, how to find your break-even win rate, why a high ratio alone is not enough, and how win rate and R:R form expectancy.
8 min read →Technical analysis
Read charts: candlesticks, support and resistance, trends, Fibonacci and patterns.
How to Read Candlestick Charts: A Beginner's Guide
Learn to read candlestick charts: open, high, low, close, wicks, timeframes and key patterns like the doji, hammer and engulfing, with worked examples.
8 min read →Support and Resistance: How to Find Key Price Levels
Learn how to find support and resistance, draw them as zones, judge their strength, spot false breakouts and plan entries, stops and targets around them.
8 min read →Trends, Trendlines and Market Structure Explained
Learn to identify trends with market structure, draw trendlines and channels correctly, spot a change of character and align trends across timeframes.
8 min read →Fibonacci Retracement Levels: How to Draw and Use Them
Learn how to draw Fibonacci retracement levels, calculate each price with worked EUR/USD and BTC examples, and combine them with support and trend.
8 min read →Moving Averages: SMA vs EMA and How Traders Use Them
How SMA and EMA are calculated, what the 20, 50, 100 and 200 periods are used for, and how traders read trend, support and crossovers with them.
8 min read →Chart Patterns Every Trader Should Know: Targets and Stops
Double tops, head and shoulders, triangles, flags, wedges and ranges explained, with how traders confirm each pattern, set targets and place stops.
8 min read →Indicators & oscillators
Momentum tools such as RSI, Stochastic and MACD, and how to use them in context.
Oscillators Explained: RSI, Stochastic and MACD for Beginners
What oscillators measure and how RSI, Stochastic and MACD work, with default settings, overbought and oversold levels, divergence and common mistakes.
7 min read →RSI Indicator: Overbought, Oversold and Divergence Explained
How the RSI is calculated step by step, what 70, 30 and 50 really mean, how to read divergence and failure swings, and which settings suit your style.
8 min read →Psychology & process
Discipline, emotions, a written trading plan and a journal.
Trading Psychology: Discipline, Fear, Greed and Revenge Trading
How fear, greed, revenge trading, FOMO and tilt push you off your plan, and the practical routines that help you trade with discipline.
8 min read →How to Build a Trading Plan and Keep a Trading Journal
What to put in a trading plan, a fill-in template, what to record in a trading journal, and how to calculate win rate, average R and expectancy.
8 min read →Reference
The vocabulary of trading in one place.
Educational content only, not investment advice. Trading involves risk, and leverage magnifies losses as well as gains. All Drift Fund accounts are simulated.