Week 1 Session: Welcome to the Market
The first session — orientation to markets in general, and to how this course will move through them
Session
22 February 2027
An orientation session: no market concept is tested yet, but everyone leaves with the account every later session assumes exists.
What you’re given
An orientation to how the twelve weeks fit together — each one another way a small account can lose capital or be forced to stop, starting from stocks and building through styles, risk, leverage, futures, options and crypto — and access to the simulated/paper-trading platform the course uses throughout. No real money touches this course at any point.
What you do
Set the simulated account up: confirm it loads, place no orders yet, and work through the five asset classes the semester covers, naming one thing each is actually used for rather than just its name.
What you produce
A working simulated account, logged into and ready, plus a one-line note per asset class in your own words.
Why it matters
Week 2 assumes the account already exists and puts the first simulated order through it — nothing here is graded, but nothing in Week 2 works without it.
The spec
What you bring to the session. Written so a reader can tell whether it has been met without asking you.
- can name the asset classes the course covers and one thing each is used for
- has a paper-trading or simulated account ready to use in later sessions
Teaching team
- Marisol Quaye — convenor