Risk disclaimer

Education, not advice

Everything on this site is general education about how markets, accounts, trading tools and retirement rules work. None of it is investment, tax or legal advice, and none of it takes account of your circumstances, goals or finances. No page is a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security or fund, to open an account with any broker or prop firm, or to claim a benefit at a particular age. Before you make a decision that matters, consider speaking to a licensed professional who can look at your situation.

Trading and investing carry risk

Prices can fall quickly and by large amounts. You can lose some or all of the money you put in, and with margin, short selling or selling options you can lose more than you put in. Options can expire worthless. Stop orders do not guarantee an exit price, and prices can gap past them. A strategy that worked on past charts can stop working, and chart patterns and indicators describe what prices did, not what they will do.

Leveraged and inverse funds

Leveraged and inverse ETFs aim for a multiple of one day's index return. Held for longer than a day, their returns can differ widely from that multiple of the index's return over the same period, and they can lose value even when the index ends where it started. Read the fund's prospectus before buying one.

Prop firm accounts

Prop firm evaluations cost money, and their rules differ from firm to firm and change over time. Many funded accounts trade in a simulated environment. The rule sets described on this site are hypothetical; the rules that apply to you are the ones on your firm's own pages.

Retirement, tax and benefits

Tax rules, contribution limits, Social Security and Medicare rules change, often every year. The courses and guides explain how the rules work and use round hypothetical figures. Check current figures with the IRS, the Social Security Administration or Medicare, and consider professional advice before converting an account, claiming a benefit or making a gift that could affect Medicaid eligibility.

Examples are hypothetical

Worked examples, case studies and quiz questions use invented accounts, stocks and rule sets with round numbers to show how a calculation works. Where a real group of companies is named, any figure in the arithmetic is an assumption for the example. None of it describes a real result or forecasts one.

Calculators give estimates

The calculators do arithmetic on the numbers you enter. Their output is only as good as those inputs, and several inputs, such as returns, inflation and how long retirement lasts, are estimates by nature. Check any result before relying on it.

Data and third parties

The ticker tape shows quotes from a separate service that may be delayed or unavailable. Fund details change; check a fund's own page before trading it. See also the terms of use and the editorial policy.