All courses🌍 Fundamental · Level 1.1
🌱 Market Foundations
Quotes, pips, sessions, order types and leverage. The fundamental vocabulary every other lesson is built on.
7 lessons ~34 min read
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What a market actually is
Describe a market as a record of transactions between buyers and sellers, not a prediction Read any currency quote correctly and identify the base and quote currency Explain what the spread is and calculate its cost across a year of trading Name the eight major currencies and explain why majors suit beginners
Pips, points and how profit is measured
Locate the pip in any pair, including the JPY and gold exceptions Calculate pip value for standard, mini and micro lots Derive position size from risk and stop distance, in that order Estimate the annual cost of spread for a given trading frequency
Market sessions and when to trade
Name the four sessions and their UTC hours Explain why the London–New York overlap offers the best conditions Identify the rollover window and the risks of trading through it Match an instrument to the session in which it actually moves
Order types — the tools of execution
Distinguish market, limit and stop orders by what each one guarantees Place a stop-loss where the idea is wrong rather than at a comfortable number Choose the order type that matches the trade thesis Explain why moving a stop further away ends risk management
Leverage, margin and the account killer
State why risk is stop distance times position size, and leverage is absent from it Calculate margin required and explain the stop-out mechanism Explain how leverage enables over-sizing rather than causing loss directly Recognise correlated positions as a single, multiplied risk
Spread, commission and swap
Separate the three costs of a trade and compute each Convert a spread quoted in points into money at your position size Explain why swap can dominate on a position held for weeks Compare two brokers on total cost rather than headline spread
Demo, live, and when to switch
State what a demo account reproduces faithfully and what it does not Name three conditions worth meeting before funding a live account Explain why the first live account should be smaller than feels worthwhile Recognise demo habits that will not survive real money
Final challenge
Answer all 13 questions. You need 11 of 13 correct to unlock the certificate — 2 can be wrong. Retakes are unlimited, so take your time.