Stock Market Basics
A numbered beginner course covering what a stock actually is, how the market trades it, what moves prices, and the practical mechanics of buying your first shares, reading a quote, and reading a chart — written for the zero-commission, fractional-share era.
- 1What Is a Stock?
A stock is a share of ownership in a real company — a claim on its assets and earnings. What that actually means, and how shareholders make money.
- 2Types of Stocks
Common vs preferred shares, dual share classes, market-cap tiers, and the growth/value/income labels — how investors actually categorize stocks.
- 3How Stocks Trade
Exchanges, brokers, bid-ask spreads, market hours and T+1 settlement — the plumbing that executes your order in milliseconds, explained simply.
- 4What Moves Stock Prices
Supply and demand set every price — but earnings, expectations, interest rates and sentiment set supply and demand. The real drivers, by time horizon.
- 5How to Buy Stocks
Opening a brokerage account, funding it, choosing between market and limit orders, and placing a first trade — the complete walkthrough for beginners.
- 6How to Read a Stock Quote
Last price, bid-ask, volume, market cap, P/E, 52-week range and dividend yield — every number on a stock quote decoded, and which ones matter.
- 7How to Read a Stock Chart
Line charts, candlesticks, volume bars, timeframes, trends and support/resistance — a beginner's complete guide to reading price charts.
- 8Bull and Bear Markets
What officially counts as a bull or bear market, why bears are sharper but shorter, corrections vs crashes, and what beginners should actually do in each.