Stocks — owning a piece of the action
A share is fractional ownership of a real company. No expiry date, no forced exit, no leverage (unless you ask for it). That's why stocks are the best classroom: your mistakes teach slowly instead of vaporizing the account.
Market order — "buy it now"
Fills instantly at whatever the current price is. You trade certainty of execution for uncertainty of price. Fine for big, liquid stocks. Dangerous in fast markets or thin ones.
Limit order — "buy it at my price"
Fills only at your price or better. You trade certainty of price for uncertainty of execution — it might never fill. This is how patient traders buy pullbacks and sell rips.
The order book — see where a stock is standing
Every stock has two queues: bids (what buyers offer) and asks (what sellers demand). The gap between the best ones is the spread — your instant cost of crossing it.
The trading day
US markets (NYSE/Nasdaq) aren't open 24h — and the open and close are where most of the volatility lives.
Position sizing — the part everyone skips
Never risk a fixed dollar amount — risk a fixed percent, and let the stop distance determine share count: