Investing & Trading Basics

A course in three levels. Each level assumes the one before it; each article also stands on its own. Every graphic here is our own, drawn from synthetic price series – it shows the shape of a pattern, not a real price history, because a real example would always be one selected after the fact.

What this course does not provide: ready-made signals, entry rules or forecasts. What it does provide: the concepts behind them, and for every tool an honest note on what it measures and where it stops working.

1. Level 1

   Reading charts

   7 articles

   Price displays, candles, trends, zones and volume — plus the arithmetic that comes before any pattern: how much a single position may cost you. Without this level, everything after it is decoration.

   1. 1 How to Read a ChartChart types, timeframes, axes – and what a chart systematically omits.
   2. 2 Reading Candles: Body, Wick, ColourHow a candle is built, the body-to-wick ratio – and what gets lost.
   3. 3 Trend, Trendline, ChannelHigher highs, higher lows – and why trendlines are more malleable than they look.
   4. 4 Support and ResistanceZones instead of lines, role reversal, round numbers – and where these areas come from.
   5. 5 Volume: the Second Opinion on PriceVolume confirms moves – except where it is not centrally recorded at all.
   6. 6 Risk, Stops and Position SizingThinking in R, sizing from the stop – and why losses cost more than they look.
   7. 7 What Technical Analysis Can and Cannot DoBase rates, selection bias, self-fulfilment – a sober assessment.
2. Level 2

   Patterns & indicators

   9 articles

   Candlestick patterns, chart formations, moving averages, oscillators and volatility measures — each with what it measures and what it cannot do. The level closes with the question of how to test a pattern at all.

   1. 1 Candlestick Reversal PatternsHammer, engulfing, star formations – construction, meaning, preconditions.
   2. 2 Continuation Patterns and the Doji FamilyDoji, marubozu, soldiers and crows – indecision or continuation.
   3. 3 Reversal Chart PatternsH&S, double top, double bottom, rounding bottom – and what their targets are worth.
   4. 4 Continuation Chart PatternsTriangles, flags, pennants, wedges, rectangles – pauses in a trend.
   5. 5 Moving AveragesSMA, EMA, crossovers – smoothing and its price: lag.
   6. 6 Oscillators: RSI and StochasticsRSI, stochastics, divergences – and the overbought misconception.
   7. 7 MACD and Trend StrengthMACD, signal line, histogram – and ADX as strength without direction.
   8. 8 Measuring Volatility: Bollinger and ATRBollinger, ATR, squeeze – volatility drives stops, not direction.
   9. 9 Testing a PatternFrom shape to testable rule – and the traps along the way.
3. Level 3

   AI in trading

   8 articles

   Why standard machine learning fails on price series and what financial research developed instead: sampling, labels, leak-free cross-validation, and the question of how much a backtest proves at all.

   1. 1 Why Machine Learning Fails in MarketsWhy standard methods break on price series – the list of failure modes.
   2. 2 Data and Bars: the Sample DecidesTime bars are a poor sample – the alternatives and why.
   3. 3 Stationarity and MemoryReturns erase memory – fractional differentiation does not.
   4. 4 Labels: Triple Barrier and Meta-LabelingFixed horizons produce unusable labels – the triple barrier fixes that.
   5. 5 Overlapping Examples and Sample WeightsOverlapping labels fake independence – and how to correct for it.
   6. 6 Cross-Validation Without LeakageWhy k-fold leaks on price data – purging, embargo, CPCV.
   7. 7 Backtest Overfitting: the Number of Trials CountsThe best of 50 trials always looks good – how to correct for it.
   8. 8 Feature Importance and Bet SizingWhich features actually carry the model – and how that becomes a position size.

Everything here is information, not investment or tax advice. All graphics are our own, drawn from synthetic price series — they show the shape of a pattern, not real market data.