Practical Guide to Trading

While investing and trading in the options market may seem somewhat more daunting than other asset classes such as stocks, bonds, exchange-traded funds, currencies and commodities, you’ll ultimately find that their complexity can be boiled down to simple concepts you’ll be able to understand and use the more you’re exposed to, and have hands-on experience with the material. Our aim is for you to acquire these skills, as well as the know-how, to invest and trade in these often-complex financial instruments. We'll explore the mechanics of futures market, where we’ll introduce you to some of the risks faced by investors in the futures market, how certain of those risks are mitigated, as well as the difference between spot and forward prices, and contango and backwardation. We’ll also provide you with other insights about the mechanics of trading futures, including the roles of commoditized contracts, as well as margin requirements. Students may also further their involvement with this material by opening a free demo Trader Workstation Paper Trading account, enabling them to enjoy a hands-on experience in a safe, simulated trading environment, while being fully immersed in the fundamentals that underpin the capital markets. Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. For more information read the Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options, also known as the options disclosure document (ODD). To receive a copy of the ODD call 312-542-6901 or copy and paste this link into your browser: http://www.optionsclearing.com/about/publications/character-risks.jsp Multiple leg strategies, including spreads, will incur multiple commission charges.

In this fixed income course, you will learn to distinguish between different types of U.S. dollar-denominated corporate and municipal debt issuance, identify corporate and municipal bonds available to purchase and sell on an online trading platform, grasp the market mechanics underlying each type of fixed income instrument, as well as conduct basic analyses, and flag critical investment risks. At the end of the course, you should be able to describe different types of corporate and municipal bond products available to buy and sell, some of the related risks you, as an investor, are likely to face, certain ways of mitigating them, as well as how to use an online trading platform to identify available securities to invest in, conduct due diligence, and much more

In this course, will look at industries and economic sectors that neatly define an economy. We will also introduce you to fundamental concepts involved in a company’s annual statements such as balance sheets, cash flows and its income statement, plus explore popular fundamental values used to filter vast amounts of corporate stocks. And finally, we’ll examine mutual funds and ETFs as alternatives to individual stocks for investing. To facilitate a comprehensive understanding of essential concepts discussed, this course includes a series of practical examples, quizzes, reading materials and a final course project.