Learn Forex Trading: The Free Course

Learn Forex Trading: The Free Course

A free course in the order things actually matter, from what you are trading to how much to risk on each one.

RaynerRayner6 min readUpdated 22 September 2026

Most people learn forex trading in the wrong order. They start with indicators and strategies, which is the interesting part, and skip the two things that decide whether an account survives: how a quote works and how much to trade.

This course runs in the order that actually matters. Each page below is a complete lesson, and the sequence is deliberate. Nothing here costs anything, there is no email required, and the signals used as worked examples are published in full on the same site so you can check every claim against a real record.

The short answer

To learn forex trading, work through four things in order: what a currency pair actually represents, how to read a quote including pips and spread, how to place an order with a stop attached, and how to size a position from the stop distance. Everything else is refinement.

The order to work through this

Four stages. Do not skip ahead, because each one assumes the last.

Stage What you learn Page
1. What it is What a currency pair represents and who trades it What is forex trading
2. The quote Base and quote currency, and what you are buying Base and quote currency
3. The order Placing a trade with a stop and a target attached Types of forex orders
4. The size How much to trade, which is the decision that matters most How much to risk per trade
A notebook and pen on a desk
Four stages, in order. The fourth one decides more than the other three combined.

Once those four are comfortable, the step by step version of a first trade is in how to trade forex.

What forex actually is, in one paragraph

Every currency has a price in terms of every other currency, and those prices move constantly. A forex trade is a bet on one of those prices going up or down. You never receive any currency and nothing physical changes hands. Your broker records the difference between the price you opened at and the price you closed at, and your account moves by that amount multiplied by the size you traded.

That last clause is the whole subject. The direction is one decision and the size is the other, and most people spend all of their time on the first.

The four terms worth learning first

Term What it means Why it matters
Pip The smallest standard price move, usually the fourth decimal Every stop and target is measured in these
Lot The size of your position Decides what each pip is worth to you
Spread The gap between the buy and sell price You pay it on entry, on every trade
Stop loss The price at which the trade closes for a loss Sets your risk, and lets you work out the size

Pips and spread in full are in what a pip and a spread are. The other two are covered as you go.

Leverage, and the sentence to remember

Leverage lets you control a position larger than your account balance. A broker offering high leverage is telling you what they will permit, not what you should open.

The sentence worth memorising

Position size comes from the stop distance and the money you are willing to lose. It never comes from the balance and it never comes from the leverage available. If a position feels too small, the account is small for that trade, not the stop too wide.

This is the single largest cause of blown beginner accounts, and the arithmetic that prevents it is in how much to risk per trade. The lot size calculator does it in one step.

A sensible first three months

Twelve weeks, real money only at the end
  1. 01Weeks 1 to 2Work through the four stages above. Take no trades at all.
  2. 02Weeks 3 to 4Follow published signals on paper. Log each one and work out what your position size would have been.
  3. 03Weeks 5 to 8Place every trade on demo at the size you calculated, with the stop set in the same action.
  4. 04Weeks 9 to 12Keep going on demo and review your log. Count how many trades you sized correctly rather than how much you made.

The number that matters at the end is not the demo balance. It is whether you sized every trade properly without having to think about it. That habit is what the whole course is for.

The rest of the course

When you are ready to follow signals rather than trade your own ideas, start with how to read a forex signal and forex signals for beginners.

Keep reading

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to learn forex trading?

The mechanics take a few weeks. The discipline takes far longer, and most people need several months of demo trading before position sizing happens automatically rather than being something they look up.

Do I need to pay for a forex course?

No. Everything on this site is free and there is no email required. Be careful with any paid course that promises returns, since nobody can promise an outcome in a leveraged market.

What should I learn first in forex?

What a currency pair represents, then how to read a quote, then how to place an order with a stop attached, then how to size a position. Strategies and indicators come after all four.

How much money do I need to start?

Enough that one percent of the account produces a position above your broker’s minimum size. On most pairs that means a few hundred at least, and less than that forces you to risk several percent per trade.

Is demo trading useful?

For the mechanics, yes. It teaches you the platform, the order types and the sizing arithmetic. It does not teach you how you behave when real money is moving, which is a separate lesson.

Can I learn forex trading on my own?

Yes, and most people do. What is hard to learn alone is the discipline around sizing and stops, which is why following a published record with real losses in it is useful early on.

What is the most common beginner mistake?

Sizing a position by feel rather than calculating it from the stop distance. It is the cause of most blown accounts, and it takes ten seconds to avoid.