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Learn to Trade with Greenwick
Free, no-fluff lessons for aspiring day traders — starting from the absolute basics and building toward small-cap momentum. Work through them in order.
New to the markets? Start here. These beginner lessons give you the foundation before you move on to scanners, charts, and live strategy. Every lesson is free to read.
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Start here — The Basics
Lesson 01What Is the Stock Market?What stocks are, how they trade, and why prices move — explained in plain English.Lesson 02Trading Styles: Day, Swing & Long-TermThe main trading styles and what each one demands — time, skills, and mindset.Lesson 03Stocks, ETFs, Options & IndexesWhat you can actually trade — and what indexes like the Dow really mean.Lesson 04Broker Accounts & RulesCash vs. margin, day-trading rules, and broker rules for the USA, Canada & international traders.Lesson 05Building a Scanner & WatchlistFilter the whole market down to the few stocks worth watching today.Lesson 06How to Choose the Right Stock to TradeYour scanner hands you eight names. Learn how to rank them and commit to the one or two worth trading.Lesson 07Candlestick Basics: How to Read a ChartFour prices, one picture. Learn what a candle is telling you — and why the sequence beats any single shape.
Reading the chart
Lesson 08Support and Resistance: Marking Levels That MatterYesterday’s high, the premarket range, whole and half dollars and VWAP. Mark two or three levels you can explain out loud — not thirty lines.Lesson 09Candlestick Patterns That Actually MatterThe bull flag and bear flag first, then the reversal shapes — and why the same candle means everything at a level and nothing in open space.Lesson 10Breakouts and BreakdownsTelling a real break from a fake one, why the retest beats chasing the candle, and where the stop belongs.
Risk and discipline
Lesson 11Risk Management: Sizing, Stops & Loss LimitsDecide what one loss costs before you look for a trade, size the position from the stop distance, and set a daily limit that ends a bad day early.Lesson 12Order Types: Market, Limit & StopsMarket versus limit orders, the hybrid that solves most of it, and why a stop-limit is the wrong tool for protecting a position.Lesson 13Order Routing, Level 2 & Execution CostsWhere your order actually goes, why commission-free is not free, the extra rules that come with shorting, and how to read Level 2 without being hypnotised by it.
How small caps move
Lesson 14Halts, Circuit Breakers & SSRWhy these stocks freeze mid-move, why your stop does not help while they are frozen, and what the short sale restriction changes.Lesson 15Float, Share Structure & DilutionWhy the same news moves one stock 8% and another 180% — and how companies quietly sell shares into your trade.Lesson 16Catalysts: Why This Stock, Why TodayWhat counts as a real catalyst, the wording that gives away a weak one, and why volume settles the argument.Lesson 17VWAP, Moving Averages & VolumeThree tools that earn their space on the chart — and why MACD, RSI and Bollinger Bands are the same data three times.
The strategy playbook
Lesson 18The Trading Day: Routine & Time of DayHour by hour through the session, why midday breaks good setups, and the premarket routine that goes around it.Lesson 19Gap and Go: The Momentum Opening StrategySix filters before the bell, the premarket high as the trade, and the exact points at which the setup is void.Lesson 20The Bull Flag & the First PullbackThe most repeatable setup in momentum trading — pole, quiet pause, continuation — and why the pause must be quiet.Lesson 21Reversals: Fading an Extended MoveTaking the other side without picking tops: wait for the failure, define the price that proves you wrong, one attempt.
Managing the account
The inner game
Lesson 23Trading Psychology: Fear, Greed and TiltThe three states that empty accounts — and how to cage the emotional version of you before the screen gets loud.Lesson 24Keeping a Trade Journal That Changes Your TradingGrade the decision, not the dollar result, and build a record that actually changes what you do next week.Lesson 25Writing a Trading Plan You’ll Actually FollowThe seven sections every plan needs, and the one-page test that tells you whether you have a plan or a vibe.Lesson 26The Weekly Review: Turning Data Into an EdgeOne hour a week, four questions, exactly one change — how your journal turns into an edge.
Getting screen time
Managing the trade
Lesson 28Scaling In and Out: Managing a Position After EntryAdd to winners, never losers; move the stop one direction only — the trade management nobody teaches.Lesson 29Reading the Tape: Time & Sales and the Order BookRead the speed of the tape over the resting sizes, and why the small-cap order book lies.
The mechanics that bite
Lesson 30Short Selling Small Caps: Locates, Borrow Fees and the RisksLocates, borrow fees, squeezes and forced buy-ins — why a short can cost more than your entire account.Lesson 31Taxes, Wash Sales and Record-Keeping for Active TradersThe wash-sale trap that taxes you on losses you actually took, and the habits that keep spring from hurting.Lesson 32Protecting Yourself: Pump-and-Dumps, Paid Alerts and Trading ScamsHow to spot the pump, the paid-alert crowd and the guaranteed-win scam — and never be the exit liquidity.
The journal
Sixteen short lessons on keeping a trading journal and reading it: one idea per lesson, in the order you’d set it up.
Lesson 33Why Your Memory Lies About Your TradingMemory keeps the dramatic trades and drops the ordinary ones that decide your month.Lesson 34Getting Your Trades Into a Journal: Exports, Fills and FeesBroker exports, turning fills into trades, and why every result should be net of fees.Lesson 35Measure Every Trade in R, Not DollarsWhat R is, how to calculate it, and what it shows about your stops.Lesson 36Your Win Rate Is Not Your ScoreWin rate only means something next to payoff. The break-even math in one table.Lesson 37Naming Your Setups So the Data Means SomethingA short, fixed setup list with definitions, so grouping by setup actually works.Lesson 38Mistake Tags: Putting a Price on Your ErrorsTag every mistake, winners included, and add up what each one costs in R.Lesson 39Logging Emotion and State Without Writing an EssayOne rating before the open, one word per trade, and what to look for later.Lesson 40Chart Screenshots That Actually Teach You SomethingCapture the plan at entry, not the story afterwards.Lesson 41The Five-Minute Daily RecapA fixed after-close checklist so the weekly review has something to work with.Lesson 42Results by Time of Day: Finding the Hours That Cost YouSplit results by the clock and turn a costly window into a simple rule.Lesson 43Results by Share Price: Where Your Losses ClusterWhy a $1 stock and a $10 stock trade differently, and how to check your own ranges.Lesson 44One Bad Day: How a Single Session Erases a WeekRead your calendar, not just your total, and set a daily max loss.Lesson 45Losing Streaks: What’s Normal and What’s a WarningThe streak math for low win rates, and the signs a streak is a real problem.Lesson 46How Many Trades Before You Trust a Pattern?How far a win rate can swing by luck, and rough guides for acting on a pattern.Lesson 47Turning a Journal Finding Into a Rule You TestWrite checkable if-then rules, test them, and judge adherence first.Lesson 48Journaling Paper Trades and Live Trades SeparatelyKeep sim and live apart, and use the gap before you size up.
Next steps
Once you’ve got the basics down, put them to work: compare the best brokers for day trading and explore the scanners and tools that active traders rely on. The course now continues above through psychology, journalling (including a 16-part journal series), your trading plan, trade management, tape reading, short selling and avoiding scams.