Learn the mechanics before you risk the money.
Sizing, margin, order behaviour and financing — the parts of trading that decide outcomes long before market direction does.
Start with the mechanics
Most trading losses are not caused by a poor market view. They are caused by position sizing that leaves no room to be wrong, by not knowing how margin is calculated, or by discovering what a stop-out is during one. The material below covers the mechanics first, because that is what determines whether a reasonable view survives contact with a real account.
How a quote is built
Bid, ask, spread and pip value — and why the pip value of a position depends on the account currency.
Position sizing
Working backwards from the loss you are prepared to accept to the size you may open. The single most useful calculation in trading.
Margin and stop-out
What is reserved when you open, what happens as it erodes, and how automatic closure works.
Order types in practice
Where stops fill in a gap, why a limit may not fill at all, and when each is the right instrument.
Overnight financing
Why a position held for six weeks costs more than the spread you paid to open it.
Keeping a trade journal
Recording the reasoning, not only the result — the only reliable way to find a repeated mistake.
Then practise without money at risk
A demo account uses live prices, live spreads and the same margin rules as a live account. Work through a full cycle on it: open a position, size it deliberately, hold it through a news release, and close it according to a plan you wrote in advance. Do that twenty times before funding anything.
Open a demo account
Live pricing, no capital at risk, and the same margin mechanics as a live account.
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