Beyond the guides / 02
Outside resources,
chosen with care.
Where to read further when the guides here stop: free material from regulators, exchanges, and official data sources, with nothing to sell you.
01 / Start here
Go to the source, not an article about it.
Everything on this page is somewhere else. Each one is free, opens without a paid account, and has nothing to sell you. If that stops being true, the link comes off the page.
What are you trying to do?
Pick a goal to see where to go first
Understand a term
- Glossary of investing terms ↗ Investor.gov
How these were chosen.
Every link goes to a regulator, an exchange, a clearing house, or a publisher that makes its money somewhere other than your trading account.
Nothing here sells a course, a signal service, or a newsletter subscription. The list is short on purpose, and it gets shorter whenever something stops meeting that standard.
Start on this site.
If you are new, the guides here are written to be read first. The outside resources are for going deeper.
02 / Learn the basics
Definitions, filings, and how each market works.
Learn a market from the people who run it. An exchange or clearing house explains how its contracts work; it is not trying to sell you a strategy at the end.
The words and the filings
Two references worth bookmarking before anything else, and one check worth running on anyone who asks to manage your money.
Glossary of investing terms ↗
Investor.gov, from the SEC
Every term you will run into, defined in plain English by the SEC. No ads and nothing for sale.
Beginners’ guide to financial statements ↗
SEC
The balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement, walked through by the agency that requires them.
Check a broker or adviser ↗
FINRA BrokerCheck
Licenses, employment history, and any complaints or violations on record. Free, and no account needed.
One market at a time
Each of these comes from a regulator, exchange, clearing house, or large manager that operates in that market.
What an ETF actually is ↗
Investor.gov, from the SEC
What an ETF is, how it trades, and the costs and tax differences that are easy to miss.
Everything you need to know about bonds ↗
PIMCO
Why a bond’s price falls when its yield rises, from one of the largest bond managers there is.
Options, from the clearing house ↗
Options Industry Council, provided by OCC
From the organization behind the clearing house for U.S.-listed options. Basics through to the Greeks.
Introduction to futures ↗
CME Group
Contract specifications, expiration, settlement, and margin, from the exchange the contracts trade on.
School of Pipsology ↗
BabyPips
The long-running forex course. The first five levels, through Summer School, are free; the later ones need a paid subscription.
03 / Check the facts
Take the number from whoever publishes it.
When a figure matters, take it from the body that publishes it rather than from an article about it. And when you want to practice, do it where no money is at risk.
The official numbers
Federal funds rate, full history ↗
FRED, St. Louis Fed
The monthly effective federal funds rate, going back to July 1954.
What a dollar used to be worth ↗
Bureau of Labor Statistics
The government’s own CPI inflation calculator, built on the same index the inflation headlines come from.
Capital gains and losses ↗
IRS, Topic 409
Holding periods, the rates that apply, and the annual limit on deducting losses, from the agency that writes the rule.
Charts and practice
The only place on this page where the material gets technical. Nothing here needs a deposit.
Practice reading a chart ↗
ChartGame
Trade real historical charts in a simulation. Pick a username and start; no money at risk.
Identifying chart patterns (PDF) ↗
Fidelity
A 48-page primer on technical patterns. Heavier going than the rest of this page.
Markets in one picture ↗
Visual Capitalist
Infographics on scale and context. A place to browse rather than a course to work through.