Start Here: A Reading Path for Understanding the Market

1. What a stock price is

Start with What moves stock prices?, then learn to read the picture itself in How to read a stock chart. Finish with Market cap and dilution, which explains why share price alone tells you nothing about size.

2. Where the numbers come from

Read How to read an earnings report and How to read a 10-K and 10-Q. These are the primary sources behind every headline.

3. Is it cheap or expensive?

The P/E ratio explained and Discounted cash flow, explained show how analysts compare price with value.

4. Getting paid to own it

How dividends work, Is the dividend safe? and How dividends are taxed.

5. The tides that move everything

How interest rates move the stock market and Corrections, bear markets and the business cycle.

6. Options, carefully

Only after the basics: What are options?, Covered calls and The risks most beginners miss.

Practice

Pick one company you know as a customer. Work through it with the free worksheet, and run its numbers in our calculators. Keep the glossary open in another tab.