Routes through the courseThe fourteen lessons that get you from never having opened a chart to placing a sized trade on a demo account.
From zero in two weeks
Lessons on this route
14 lessons
- 1 · Lesson 1.1
What happens when you press Buy
An order leaves your platform, gets filled at a price, becomes an open position, and ends when you close it. Four steps, and every cost attaches to one of them.
- 2 · Lesson 1.2
Pairs and quotes: what 1.0850 means
A quote is the price of the first currency in the second. The number you see moves in the last decimal place, and that place has a money value.
- 3 · Lesson 1.3
What a pip is worth in money
A pip is the smallest standard price step. What it is worth depends on lot size and the pair, so the same twenty-pip move pays differently on different trades.
- 4 · Lesson 1.4
Lots: standard, mini and micro
A lot is how much of the instrument one trade controls. Standard is 100,000 units, mini is a tenth of that, micro a hundredth.
- 5 · Lesson 1.5
The three costs: spread, commission, swap
You pay the spread on entry, commission on some account types, and swap for every night a position stays open. All three are known before you trade.
- 6 · Lesson 1.7
Leverage and margin: how much of the trade is yours
Leverage sets how large a position your deposit can hold. Margin is the part of your money locked against it while the trade is open.
- 7 · Lesson 1.8
Order types: market, limit, stop
A market order takes the current price. A limit waits for a better one. A stop triggers once price reaches a worse one.
- 8 · Lesson 1.9
Stop loss and take profit
Two instructions you attach to a position: one closes it at a loss you chose in advance, the other at a profit you chose in advance.
- 9 · Lesson 1.10
MT4, MT5 and cTrader: which to pick
The three platforms differ in instruments, order handling and how they report costs. The choice is reversible; the account type behind it is less so.
- 10 · Lesson 1.12
Demo accounts: what they teach and where they lie
A demo teaches the platform and the arithmetic honestly. It cannot teach fills in a fast market, and it cannot teach how losing real money feels.
- 11 · Lesson 1.14
Opening an account and passing verification
What documents a regulated broker has to ask for, why it has to ask, and the checks that hold an application up.
- 12 · Lesson 1.15
Deposits and withdrawals with local methods
Which local payment methods reach a broker, how long each leg takes, and why a withdrawal usually has to go back the way the deposit came.
- 13 · Lesson 3.1
Risk per trade: the 1-2% rule
Deciding the money you can lose on one trade before deciding anything else. Everything downstream — size, stop, target — follows from that number.
- 14 · Lesson 3.2
Working out position size
Risk in money, divided by the stop distance in pips, divided by pip value. Three numbers you already have, in that order.
The shape of the fortnight
The route is fourteen lessons long and it runs in a fixed order. The order is not a suggestion. Each lesson uses a word or a number that the one before it defined, so skipping ahead leaves a gap you will meet later. A reader who has never opened a chart starts at the top and works down. A reader who already trades can start wherever they stop learning something new. The pace is one lesson a day, with the last day left free for revision. That is the two weeks.
The first lessons are about reading. You learn what the platform shows you before you learn what to do about it. The middle lessons are about cost and control: what a trade charges you, what the broker lends you, and what happens if the market moves against you. The last lessons are about doing it with real money, which means sizing the trade and funding the account. Reading comes before acting, and cost comes before size.
Nothing on this route asks you to deposit money. The trade at the end is placed on a demo account. That is deliberate. The skills you are building are observation and arithmetic, and both can be practised with pretend money. Real money adds a feeling that makes arithmetic harder. Learn the arithmetic first, while the numbers are not yours.
What to have ready before lesson one
You need a device with a browser, and a way to take notes. Notes matter more than the device. Most of the numbers on this route are small and easy to forget: the value of a pip, the size of a lot, the spread on a pair. Write each one down as you meet it. A page of your own numbers is worth more than any lesson you read twice.
You do not need a broker account to begin. The first nine lessons run on a demo account, and a demo account needs nothing but an email address. You will need identification documents later, when the route reaches verification, so find your passport or driver licence now and keep it somewhere you can reach. You will also need a bank account in your own name, because deposits and withdrawals are matched to the name on the trading account.
Set aside twenty minutes a day, and pick a time when you are not tired. Trading lessons read badly at midnight. The arithmetic in the sizing lessons is simple but it punishes a tired reader. If you miss a day, do not double up. Continue where you stopped. The route has no deadline, and the two weeks is a description of the work, not a contract.
Where people go wrong on this route
The most common mistake is opening a live account too early. A demo account is free, and the lessons on it are the same lessons you would learn with money. Readers who fund an account in week one tend to stop doing the arithmetic and start watching the balance. The balance moves for reasons that have nothing to do with skill, and it teaches very little. Stay on the demo until the sizing lesson is finished and you can do the calculation without looking it up.
The second mistake is treating the cost lessons as background. Spread, commission and swap are not trivia. They are the reason a trade that looks flat on the chart can still lose money. A reader who skips them will size a trade as if the entry price were the only price. It is not. The price you get is worse than the price you saw, by an amount that varies between brokers and between times of day.
The third mistake is changing the plan mid-route. Readers who jump to leverage before they understand pips, or to order types before they understand cost, end up with a set of words and no structure. The route is short. Fourteen lessons is less than a month of evenings. Finish it in order, then go back and read the parts that did not stick. The second reading is where most of it lands.
Doing it once, step by step
Work through the fourteen lessons in the order given, one a day, and keep a note of every number you meet. The steps below describe what to do at each stage, not what to think about it.
- 01
Set up a demo account and open one chart
Choose a platform from the lesson on MT4, MT5 and cTrader and open a demo account with it. Add AUD/USD to the chart and leave it there. You are not looking for a trade. You are learning where the price, the spread and the time axis sit on the screen.
- 02
Write down the four numbers that define a trade
From the lessons on quotes, pips, lots and costs, write the current price of AUD/USD, the size of one pip in dollars, the size of a standard lot, and the spread. These four numbers are the basis of every calculation later in the route. If any of them is missing, go back to the lesson that gave it.
- 03
Practise the arithmetic before you use it
Work out the pip value for a micro lot, a mini lot and a standard lot on AUD/USD. Then work out what a ten pip move is worth on each. Do this on paper until you can do it without the lesson open. The sizing lesson at the end of the route assumes you can.
- 04
Place one demo trade with a stop loss and a take profit
Use a market order, set both exits at the same time as the entry, and leave the trade alone until one of them is hit. Note the result, including the spread you paid. This is the only trade the route requires, and it is on pretend money.
- 05
Open the live account and pass verification
When the demo trade is closed and understood, open a live account with the same broker if you wish, and submit your identification. Verification takes time, and the route does not need it until the deposit lesson. Do not deposit before verification is complete.
- 06
Deposit a small amount and size one trade
Use PayID, BPAY or a card, and deposit an amount you would not miss. Then use the risk per trade rule and the position size calculation to plan one trade, and place it only if it fits the rule. If it does not fit, the correct action is no trade.
Questions that come up next
Do I need to fund an account to finish the route?
No. The route ends with a sized trade on a demo account, and a demo account needs only an email address. Money enters the picture in the lessons on deposits and withdrawals, where you learn how PayID, BPAY and cards work, but nothing there requires you to send funds. The arithmetic you practise is the same on pretend money. Real money adds a feeling that makes the arithmetic harder, so the route keeps it out until the end.
What if I already know what a pip is?
Start wherever you stop learning something new. The order matters because each lesson uses a word the one before it defined, so a gap shows up later. If you can already read a quote and value a pip, the early lessons will confirm that quickly. Move to the first lesson whose words you cannot explain without looking them up.
Why is the route fourteen lessons and not fewer?
Each lesson answers one question that the next one needs. Pairs and quotes give you the numbers, pip value gives them money, lots give them size, and the cost lessons tell you what the trade charges. Cutting a lesson leaves a word undefined. The count is a description of the work, not padding.
Can I use a different pair from AUD/USD?
Yes, once you understand the arithmetic. AUD/USD is used because the quote is around 0.6640 and the dollar is local, so the numbers are easy to follow. A different pair changes the pip value and the spread, and both vary between brokers. Work through the route on AUD/USD first, then repeat the sizing lesson on another pair and compare.
How long should each lesson take?
About twenty minutes, at a time when you are not tired. The sizing lessons are simple arithmetic but they punish a tired reader. If you miss a day, continue where you stopped rather than doubling up. The two weeks is a pace, not a deadline.
Does ASIC regulate the demo account?
ASIC regulates the brokers that offer trading accounts to Australian residents, and the rules that apply to a live account vary by broker and by product. A demo account is a practice tool, not a regulated financial product, and the prices on it may differ from live prices. Treat the demo as a place to practise arithmetic, not as a record of what a live account would do.
The words used on this page
- Demo account
- A trading account that uses pretend money and live or delayed prices. It lets you place orders and see the result without risking funds. What it teaches is the mechanics; what it hides is how you behave when the money is real.
- Pip
- The smallest common move in a currency quote, usually the fourth decimal place. On AUD/USD at 0.6640, one pip is 0.0001. Pip value turns that move into money, and it depends on the size of the trade.
- Lot
- A standard unit of trade size. A standard lot, a mini lot and a micro lot are fixed multiples of one another. The lot you choose sets how much money each pip is worth.
- Leverage
- The broker lending you part of the trade so you post only a fraction of its value as margin. It magnifies both the gain and the loss on the money you put up. The fraction you post varies between brokers.
- Spread
- The gap between the price at which you can buy and the price at which you can sell. It is one of the three costs of a trade, alongside commission and swap. The spread on a pair varies between brokers and through the day.
- Position size
- The number of lots you trade, chosen from your risk per trade and the distance to your stop loss. It is the last calculation on the route because it needs every number the earlier lessons defined. Get it wrong and the risk rule is only a word.
What to take away
- The route runs in a fixed order because each lesson defines a word the next one uses.
- The first nine lessons need nothing but a browser, notes and a demo account.
- Money enters at verification and funding, and the trade at the end is placed on a demo.
- Twenty minutes a day, no doubling up, and the two weeks is a pace rather than a deadline.