Do you know that every third investor fails within the first year of work? Among 100 million active investors, over 60% will lose their money within the first year and 30% – during the second year of activity. Still, the number of new investors and traders grows geometrically. With technological advancement, the evolution of fintech platforms, and ease of access to trading tools and applications, investing has become more engaging and accessible. The development of cryptocurrency and blockchain has also contributed to the rising demand. The ease of access to the market that caused this influx of newbie traders has exposed a key gap: financial education and literacy. Over 80% of new traders and investors fail and lose their money within the first months of their market activity due to a lack of knowledge, experience, and proper preparation.
If you are planning to start an investing or trading career, then your main question should not be if you should get educated but how. Together with technologies, the markets also evolve; we witness that the financial markets turn even more complex and volatile. That is why it is of critical importance to master the basics of financial analysis. It is up to you what channel to choose: whether you go to a university or opt for specific online courses. But the thing you should know for sure is that financial education is not just an advantage but a necessity.
Why You Need to Learn Before Trading
Anyone with an internet connection and a gadget (PC, laptop, tablet, or even a phone) can enter the financial market and start trading stocks, options, cryptocurrencies, forex, commodities, indices, and CFDs. However, no one thinks about the hidden danger of this easy accessibility without proper knowledge. While to enter the market, you do not even need initial capital (some trading platforms provide traders with a starting budget to try their skills and earn), to succeed, you need a deep understanding of how to use available financial tools and how to analyse assets, trends, market shifts, events, news, sentiment, etc.
Problem 1. Mastering the Assets
This is a prime problem for every new trader on which asset to choose. The market offers various assets you can trade or invest in. Each of them operates in its way in the market, no matter if it is stocks, indices, ETFs, or crypto. If you do not understand how each one functions, you will not be able to interpret the trends, sentiments, or leverage correctly. You may engage in complex tools like options or futures and, without fully understanding the mechanics, lose your money.
Problem 2. Data Analysis
Investors need the knowledge and skills to read data—you will work with charts, graphs, historical price shifts, and trends. However, if you do not know the basics of technical analysis, you will lose. Without knowing how to interpret data points, you will probably make emotional, but not data-informed, decisions. This often leads to substantial financial loss.
Problem 3. Guaranteed Losses
No trader or investor has ever lost any money during their financial career. A great many factors are seducing you to make emotional and quick decisions like market hype. Social media networks make a decisive contribution to this aspect of a trading career. If you start trading without proper educational preparation, you should understand and accept all underlying risks and take complete responsibility for your losses. There are two ways of succeeding in financial markets: through heavy investments, losses, and learning from your own experience or getting a solid educational and knowledge base.
These common challenges prove that education is a must for everyone who wants to enter the financial markets. The good news is that today, you can choose not only among universities and colleges but also online educational opportunities to get specific knowledge applicable to the sphere of your interest in the financial markets.
The Advantages of Online Education
Now you know that there are three common paths to getting financial knowledge: your own experience, traditional colleges, high schools and universities, and online education. The matter №1 is that your own experience is very costly. The matter №2 is that traditional educational institutions, due to the complexity of the system, are unable to adapt to the fast-paced changes in financial markets. Traditional financial schools often provide outdated data, knowledge, or theories. Moreover, you invest time and money to get outdated knowledge and ineffective tools. Online education is flexible, accessible, and provides up-to-date content essentials.
Reason 1. Flexibility
Online educational platforms provide pre-recorded courses that allow users to learn at their own pace so they can work and learn without compromise. You can learn and start your career simultaneously—checking the knowledge in practice.
Reason 2. Affordability
Online education is much cheaper than traditional institutions. You can choose a complete course, a seminar or webinar, an online consultation with an expert to discuss a certain issue or start a university-level finance program. Still, all of these options will cost thousands of euros. In contrast, online trading education platforms offer affordable options for users of all levels of knowledge. You get access to specialised, high-quality courses that focus on a certain financial aspect or cover a certain financial domain, such as technical analysis or a certain market.
Reason 3. Real-Time Updates
Financial markets develop at a lightning speed. While a traditional educational program on finance is approved and delivered, much of its data may get outdated. Online education that is offered by Learn Spread, a reputable online trading education platform, gets real-time updates to cover the latest trends, tools, innovations, and shifts in financial markets.
Why Learn Spread
Learn Spread is an online platform that offers courses on trading and financial markets to students of all levels of knowledge. The platform offers a highly streamlined learning experience, providing students with the necessary skills to succeed in the markets. Learn Spread utilises a structured and flexible approach to trading education.
- The Learning is Focused: Each course focuses on a specific knowledge level of users, ensuring a full coverage of the subject. The video lessons are short but packed with valuable and applicable data—whether it is technical analysis, market indicators, or mastering chart patterns.
- Simple Comprehension Checks: After you watch the video, you can check your comprehension with a quick test and apply the knowledge in practice. It is one of the key elements of Learn Spread’s methodology. This interactive approach helps you better understand information and identify the gaps so you can turn back to the lesson and watch it again. The access to lessons is unlimited within a studying year.
- Optimised Learning Pace: The learning process is entirely individual and independent. You can watch as many lessons a day as you can. You can make intervals to try newly obtained knowledge in practice and turn back to the lessons to cover the knowledge gaps if there are some.
With Learn Spread, you get up-to-the-market knowledge and tools, flexibility of learning, and affordability. The platform offers one free course and three courses tailored to different levels of expertise. After the course, you get prepared for the current state of the financial markets and the necessary knowledge and skills to cope with market data and their analysis.