Process · 6 guides

Process.

Use records, questions and review to make your learning more deliberate. Start with a question and work through the explanation at your own pace.

Be skeptical of a guaranteed comeback

A 60 percent loss needs a 150 percent gain to break even, and a $600 recovery fee pushes that to 194 percent before any trade happens.

Bring better questions to an investment professional

Ask how the person is paid first. FINRA prices a 1 percent annual fee at $28,000 over 20 years on $100,000 earning 4 percent, and Form CRS runs two pages.

Keep a journal that separates facts from forecasts

Record the move against a published threshold: 7, 13 and 20 percent halt the whole market, and 5, 10 or 20 percent bands pause a single stock.

Pause the urgency in a market post

A stock talked from $0.50 to $2.00 is up 300 percent, and the round trip back costs a buyer at the top 75 percent. Check the account and the filings first.

Review a trading example without hindsight

A $47.00 stop that filled at $45.20 cost $482 instead of the $302 reference on 100 shares. The stop-to-market conversion was published before entry.

What a paper-trading result cannot prove

CFTC Regulation 4.41(b) makes simulated results carry a hindsight warning. In one example a $480 paper gain ends at $135 once $345 of friction returns.