Learn Trading
from Real Experience
Education from someone a few steps ahead on the same path — not a guru selling you a $15,000 course to pay for a Lambo. No hype. Just what's working, what's not, and why.
Last updated July 25, 2026
Where to Actually Start
Most trading education is built for people who already trade. It assumes you know what a float is, that you can read a Level 2 window, that “it lost VWAP” means something to you. If you're earlier than that, you're not the customer — you're the person who nods along and quietly hopes it clicks later.
That's the gap this section exists to fill. Here's the order I'd go in, and notice that everything free comes before anything paid. That isn't modesty. It's the actual sequence.
1. Learn the words first
You cannot evaluate advice you can't parse. Start with the glossary — 344 terms in plain English, free, no signup. You don't need to memorise it. You need to stop nodding at words you don't know, because that habit is what makes people buy things they don't understand.
2. Work out what kind of trader you'd even be
Scalping and long-term investing are not two flavours of the same activity. They demand different hours, different temperaments, different amounts of your life. Types of trading lays the five styles side by side by holding period, screen time, and what each one actually asks of you. Pick the one that fits your life, not the one that sounds most exciting — that choice determines everything downstream, including which broker you need. Not sure where you'd land? Find your trading style in a couple of minutes.
3. Understand what a setup is — and isn't
This is the concept that separates trading from gambling, and almost nobody explains it to beginners. One signal is a guess. Several independent signals agreeing is a setup. Confluence is the whole idea, and once you have it, you stop asking “is this stock going up?” and start asking a better question.
4. Find out what you don't know yet
Two quizzes, twenty questions each, no email required to see your score. The trading terms quiz tests whether the vocabulary actually stuck. The trading psychology quiz is the harder one — it has no right answers, and it asks how you really react to being wrong. Most people fail that one long before they fail at charting.
5. Read something that isn't a sales page
The books I've actually read, rated honestly, including the ones I'd tell you to skip. A good book costs fifteen dollars and will teach you more than most courses costing two hundred times that. Start with mindset, not tactics — the tactics are the easy part and everyone underestimates that.
6. Only now, consider paying somebody
If you've done the five things above and you still want a mentor, you'll be able to judge one properly — which is the entire point of doing them first. I've written up the two I've spent money on: Kev's Trade Momentum, where I earn a commission and say so on every screen, and StocksToTrade, where I earn nothing at all.
Read them both with that difference in mind. And if anyone — me included — tries to sell you step six before you've done step one, that tells you what you need to know about them.
Courses & Bootcamps
Trade Momentum — Kev's Bootcamp
My honest, first-hand review of Kev's Trade Momentum bootcamp and live trading community. What I tried, what worked, where I slipped, and what's actually included — including the A+ Setup checklist that's now part of every trade I take.
StocksToTrade — Tim Bohen's Tools & Training
My honest, 4-star review of StocksToTrade — Tim Bohen's scanner-and-charts platform plus the surprisingly deep set of free resources around it: daily webinars, a monthly bootcamp, his YouTube day-trading course, and the STT Daily alert. What's genuinely worth your time, where the platform shows its age, and the full cost picture before you sign up for anything.
Bullish Before You Begin — Free Course
Before your first trade. Before your first mistake. The free pre-beginner series for anyone who's curious about day trading but hasn't opened an account yet. No credit card. No guru. Built for the person the $3,000 bootcamps don't bother talking to.
Trading Fundamentals
Find Your Trading Style
Answer a few honest questions about your time, risk, and goals — and get the trading styles and markets that actually fit you. The interactive companion to Types of Trading.
Types of Trading
Scalping, day, swing, position, investing — compared by holding period, screen time, and what each one actually asks of your life.
What Is Confluence?
One signal is a guess. Several that agree is a setup. The idea that separates trading from gambling, explained without jargon.
Glossary of Trading Terms
344 plain-language definitions of the day-trading and momentum terms you'll actually hear — from VWAP and float to Level 2 and the 2026 PDT change — written for beginners, several with simple diagrams. Search it, filter by topic, or jump straight to any term.
What Is Share Float
Why a 5-million-share float stock and a 500-million-share float stock behave completely differently — and why every momentum scan filter starts with float as the first constraint.
What Is a Catalyst
The news event — an earnings beat, FDA approval, contract win, or short-squeeze setup — that gives a small-cap stock a reason to move big. Without a catalyst, momentum is just noise. With one, it's a trade.
Markets & Instruments
Stock Trading Explained
Shares, orders, settlement, and dividends — the foundation everything else on this site builds on.
Options Trading Explained
Calls, puts, the Greeks, and the common strategies — a beginner's guide to how options actually work.
Futures Trading Explained
Contracts, margin, leverage, and micro contracts — and why the E-mini market almost never sleeps.
Forex Trading Explained
Currency pairs, pips, lots, and leverage — on a market that runs almost 24 hours a day.
Crypto Trading Explained
Wallets, exchanges, volatility, and a market that genuinely never closes.
Which Market Should You Trade?
Stocks, options, futures, forex, and crypto compared side by side — hours, capital, leverage, and regulation.
Test Yourself & Keep Learning
The A+ Setup: Kev's 5-Box Checklist
The five conditions I check before sizing into anything — and why missing even one is a reason to pass, or to go in smaller. Free PDF, built to print and keep next to the screen.
Trading Terms Quiz
Twenty questions drawn straight from the glossary. Round one is vocabulary. Round two is how traders actually think.
Trading Psychology Quiz
Twenty statements, no right answers. An honest look at how you react to risk, loss, and being wrong — before it costs you.
Trading Book Reviews
The trading books I've actually read cover to cover, rated honestly — including the ones I'd tell you to skip.
The Full Book List
Every trading book worth knowing, filterable and sortable by category, rating, and year.
Free Printables
The psychology rules and A+ setup checklist I keep next to my screen. Free PDFs, built to print and laminate.
On the Way
Paper Trading: Practice Without Real Money
How to use simulated trading to build real skills before putting capital on the line — which brokers offer a genuine paper trading environment, and how to use it in a way that actually transfers.
Coming Soon
How to Read Level 2 & the Tape
The order book and time & sales scroll fast and look like noise at first. What Level 2 and the tape actually show you, the patterns I look for, and why they matter most on low-float momentum names.
Coming Soon
How to Choose Your First Broker
The questions you should actually be asking before opening an account — not just commissions and minimums, but platform speed, hotkey support, short locates, and how the broker handles a fast-moving trade.
Coming Soon