Anyone with a few bucks and an internet connection has everything they need to start investing. But randomly picking stocks is a recipe for failure. If you’re serious about making money, you need to first learn how to invest. For those looking for a place to start, we’ve put together this list of the best stock trading courses out there.

Investing in the stock market has never been easier… or cheaper. Once upon a time, investors needed to call up their personal broker to make a trade. The broker would take a commission for their efforts, and voilà, transaction complete.

Then the internet came along and removed this expensive middleman. All you have to do now is power up your computer and open a brokerage account. And just like that, the entirety of the stock market is available at your fingertips. But some of those commission fees managed to stick around… for a little while, at least.

Eventually, this democratization begat even more access. The budget-friendly brokerage Robinhood introduced commission-free trading in 2013. And not long after, full-service brokerages followed suit. These days, it’s less common to charge a commission than not.

All of this easy access has captured the imagination of would-be millionaires. Turning a few penny stocks into a small fortune is every young investor’s dream. But the truth is, that’s a pretty half-cocked approach… and an extremely unlikely path to financial freedom.

There’s a big difference between speculation and investing. While speculators might search for high-reward trades, an educated investor knows how to minimize risk while also maximizing profits. And these are some of the best stock trading courses we’ve found to show you exactly how to do that.

The Five Best Stock Trading Courses (In No Particular Order)

• Investing in Stocks: The Complete Course ($139.99)
• The Complete Foundation Stock Trading Course ($129.99)
• University of Central Florida’s Stocks, Bonds, and Investing: Oh, My! ($129.00)
• Ultimate Stock Market Investing: Learn How to Value Stocks ($49.99)
• Options Trading: Candlestick Hacks for Options Trading ($109.99)

Investing in Stocks: The Complete Course

Udemy is home to several of the courses on our list. And for good reason. It offers a massive library of open online courses.

Some 35 million students have enrolled in more than 400 million courses. And Steve Ballinger’s Investing in Stocks course is the No. 1 complete overview of stock investing on the site. Featuring 11 hours of on-demand video presentations, Ballinger’s course teaches new investors the ins and outs of the stock market.

By the end, viewers will have a firm understanding of fundamental investing strategies. Using stock screeners will be second nature. And Ballinger plies his students with enough information to be able to determine risk levels and how to use qualitative and quantitative ratios to follow best practices. All of which makes this one of the best stock trading courses for new investors.

The Complete Foundation Stock Trading Course

This is another course designed for rookie traders. This one’s different, though, because it’s jam-packed with theory, history and strategy. This course is ideal for someone who wants to truly understand how the stock market works, as well as its origin and how it’s evolved over the years.

Once the foundation is laid, this course informs new traders how to manage risk. Not sure how many shares to buy? This is the perfect course for you. Professor Mohsen Hassan also spends a good amount of time covering trading psychology… an aspect of investing all too often overlooked in many trading courses.

By the end of this nearly 10-hour course, students will be poised to remove emotions from a trade – something that holds many investors back from success. This aspect of the course – which even seasoned investors could use a refresher on – is what makes it one of the best stock trading courses available.

University of Central Florida’s Stocks, Bonds, and Investing: Oh, My!

If you’re ready to start saving for retirement (and the sooner the better), but aren’t sure where to start, this is the course for you. An alarming number of Americans have less than $5,000 earmarked for retirement. Even worse, 46% of us don’t even know how much we’ve got socked away.

This course puts students on the front lines of their future. It teaches them how to build a diversified portfolio while gaining familiarity with 401(k) and retirement plans. Students in this course have the option to choose an instructor-led version or a self-guided version. But what really makes this one of the best stock trading courses is that it also covers personal finance issues that are typically overlooked.

Ultimate Stock Market Investing: Learn How to Value Stocks

If your idea of value investing is shopping at Value City, boy, do we have a pleasant surprise for you. In just over three hours, students of this course will learn the subtleties of one of the most successful investing strategies out there.

By the end of this course, viewers will understand the fundamental principles behind value investing… and be able to spot undervalued and overvalued stocks. Enrolled students are also granted access to a stock valuation calculator that helps determine the value of any stock. There is also a fully functional discussion board for students to bounce ideas off the two professors.

Students will gain the confidence to be able to pinpoint investment opportunities with peace of mind. This is what makes this one of the best stock trading courses on the market today.

Options Trading: Candlestick Hacks for Options Trading

Looking to step up your game and start turbocharging your portfolio? This is the course for you. Getting started in the world of trading options can be intimidating. But this course completely demystifies the process.

If you’re ready to take the leap into technical analysis and trade successfully no matter the market conditions, look no further. Over the course of this five-hour class, the instructors detail how to spot complex patterns and trade successfully using them. Curious about what “three white soldiers” and “black crow” patterns represent? How about “morning star” and “evening star” patterns? By the end of this course, you won’t even remember the Kenny Rogers song of the same name. But you’ll know how to properly invest using the “evening star.” And that’s why this is one of the best stock trading courses out there.

School’s Open. Are You Ready to Learn?

The internet has given us all easy access to the world of investing. But whatever you do, don’t start tossing paychecks at random stocks. If you’re ready to become a successful investor, it’s imperative to start with a plan. And these are some of the best stock trading courses to help you do just that.

But if you’re past the point of school and ready to start investing right away, sign up for the Trade of the Day e-letter. All you have to do is enter your email address in the box to the right… or down below if you’re on a mobile device. You’ll then receive daily strategies to beat the market and give your portfolio the healthy boost it needs.

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