Learn to invest before you risk real money.
Free, plain-English investing guides, dated market analysis, and a paper-trading simulator with $10,000 in practice money. No signup. No deposit. No hype.
Educational only — not financial advice. The simulator uses real market prices; the $10,000 is practice money.
New to investing? Start here
Most beginners are handed a bad first step: read a couple of articles, then put real savings on the line. The first real lesson usually arrives as a loss. These four guides are the order we'd read things in if we were starting from zero.
1. What Is the Stock Market?
Shares, exchanges, and why prices move — explained without jargon.
2. Stocks vs. ETFs
The distinction that quietly decides how much risk you're taking.
3. How Much Money Do You Need?
The honest answer, and what to handle financially first.
4. The Mistakes That Wreck Beginners
Ten predictable errors — almost all emotional, not analytical.
Market insights
Dated analysis of what's moving markets and why. Every insight carries the date it was written and links to its sources, because market conditions change quickly and a snapshot should say so.
Gold Led Africa Last October. This October It Sank It.
Brent up 13.6%, gold down 6.8% — and the African leaderboard turned over with them.
IndiaIndia Didn’t Do Anything Wrong
Down 13.1% while Taiwan is up 59%. No crisis — the money rotated, and the rupee took another 5.6%.
KoreaKorea Doubled, Then Fell 39%
The cheapest trillion-dollar market in twenty years — and the US fund tracking it is still up 56%.
TeslaTesla Revealed a Flying Car. The Stock Is Still Down.
An earnings beat, a flying Roadster, and shares down 18% on the year. Why a P/E of 407 changes what good news does.
Live dataHow's the Market?
Today's biggest movers, index performance, and headlines — with guides on how to read them.
All insightsBrowse all market insights
Every dated analysis piece in one place.
Practice without the tuition
Reading about investing and doing it are different skills. The StockCraft simulator gives you $10,000 in practice money to buy and sell stocks, ETFs, crypto, international markets, and options. Nothing is real — which is the point. You get to find out how you actually react when a position falls 20% before any of your own money is involved.
Stocks, ETFs, crypto, global markets, and basic options with practice money.
Gentle nudges when a portfolio gets concentrated or risky, and credit for good habits.
Compound growth, dividend reinvestment, position sizing, and an options profit/loss visualizer.
Plain-language answers to common questions, from RSI to how gains are taxed.
Browse by topic
Investing basics
Risk and strategy
Markets and sectors
Reference
How StockCraft works
StockCraft is a free investing education platform. It is not a brokerage, financial advisor, or investment service, and nothing on this site is personalized financial advice. We explain how things work; we don't tell you what to buy, and we don't publish price targets.
Our guides take positions that are less exciting than most trading content: that most people are best served by boring, diversified, long-term investing; that options carry a high risk of total loss; and that the biggest threat to most investors' returns is their own behavior. Our editorial policy explains how we research, cite sources, and correct mistakes.
The site is free because it's supported by advertising and by affiliate links to some financial products. Those relationships never decide what our guides say — the affiliate disclosure spells out exactly how that works, and the About page covers the rest.