MONTH 1 — WEEK 1: Welcome to the Markets — How Trading Really Works
Phase 1: Foundation | Difficulty: Beginner
Welcome to Marc Albrecht Trading Masterclass. You just made a decision that 99% of people never follow through on — committing to learning trading properly. No YouTube gurus, no get-rich-quick nonsense. Just structured skill-building over twelve months.
This first lesson sets the foundation for everything. Get this right, and the next eleven months compound. Get this wrong, and nothing else matters.
Let's go.
1. What Financial Markets Actually Are
At their core, markets are auction houses. Buyers and sellers agree on prices. That's it. Strip away the jargon and you have a 24/5 global auction.
Imagine a giant schoolyard swap meet 🏪 where everyone trades stuff. But instead of Pokémon cards, they trade pieces of companies (stocks), different country money (forex), or gold and oil (commodities).
If lots of kids want the same rare card → the price goes UP because everyone's fighting over it.
If nobody wants a card → the price goes DOWN because the seller has to make it cheaper.
That's literally how the stock market works! Prices go up when more people want to buy, and down when more people want to sell. That's it. Nothing more complicated than a playground swap.
Why Markets Exist
Markets serve three purposes:
| Purpose | What It Means | Real Example |
|---|---|---|
| Capital Allocation | Money flows from savers to builders | You buy Apple stock → Apple gets capital to build iPhones |
| Price Discovery | Markets decide what things are worth | Oil at $80/barrel = what buyers and sellers agreed on |
| Risk Transfer | Hedgers offload risk to speculators | An airline hedges fuel costs → you take the other side |
The Key Insight Most Beginners Miss
You're not trading against "the market." You're trading against other humans — hedge funds, algorithms, and millions of retail traders. Every time you buy, someone else sells to you. One of you is wrong.
Before every trade, ask yourself: "Who is on the other side, and why might they know something I don't?"
2. Asset Classes — Know Your Battlefield
Not all markets are equal. Here's your cheat sheet:
Forex (Foreign Exchange)
| Feature | On RoboForex |
|---|---|
| What it is | Trading 40+ currency pairs (EUR/USD, GBP/JPY, etc.) |
| Hours | 24 hours, Sunday evening to Friday evening |
| Leverage | Up to 1:2000 (ProCent account) |
| Min capital | $10 minimum deposit |
| Spreads | From 0.0 pips (ECN/Prime accounts) |
Pros: Lowest barrier to entry, highest liquidity, flexible hours, tight spreads on majors. Cons: High leverage is a double-edged sword — use it responsibly.
Stocks & ETFs
| Feature | On RoboForex |
|---|---|
| What it is | 12,000+ real stocks & CFDs (Apple, Tesla, Amazon, etc.) |
| Hours | During exchange hours (NYSE, NASDAQ, etc.) |
| Leverage | Up to 1:20 on stock CFDs |
| Platform | R StocksTrader with advanced tools |
Pros: Massive instrument selection, trade real stocks or CFDs, no PDT rule. Cons: Limited to exchange hours, overnight gaps possible.
Indices & Commodities
| Feature | On RoboForex |
|---|---|
| What it is | Major indices (S&P 500, DAX, NASDAQ) + Gold, Oil, Silver |
| Hours | Nearly 24 hours for most |
| Leverage | Up to 1:500 on indices |
| Spreads | Tight, competitive pricing |
Pros: Great for macro trading, portfolio diversification, high liquidity. Cons: Can be volatile during economic news events.
Pick ONE asset class. Master it for six months. Don't spread yourself across five markets trying to catch every move. For this course, we primarily use Forex and Indices — both available on RoboForex with excellent conditions.
3. How Brokers Actually Work
Your broker is a business. Understanding their model is the difference between getting a fair deal and getting played.
A-Book vs. B-Book — This Matters More Than You Think
A-Book (STP/ECN) means the broker passes your order on to liquidity providers and earns from spreads and commissions. Your success doesn't hurt it — it wants you to keep trading.
B-Book (market making) means the broker takes the other side of your order itself. When you lose, it profits directly — a conflict of interest.
In practice most retail brokers run both: they pass some flow on and keep some, and no broker publishes how much. RoboForex describes its ECN and Prime accounts as NDD (no dealing desk) with direct access to interbank liquidity; for its Pro and ProCent accounts it states market execution, without saying where the order goes. So do not take "A-Book" on trust from any broker — check what you can check (below).
Think of it like two different pizza delivery guys:
Good delivery guy (A-Book) 🟢 He takes your order to a REAL pizza shop. He earns a small delivery fee. He wants you to keep ordering because he gets paid per delivery. Your pizza being delicious doesn't cost him anything!
Sneaky delivery guy (B-Book) 🔴 He DOESN'T go to a pizza shop. He makes the pizza himself with cheap ingredients and charges you full price. If your pizza is bad and you don't finish it, he KEEPS your money. He actually WANTS your pizza to be bad!
Bottom line: Prefer a broker that makes money from your ACTIVITY (trades), not from your LOSSES — and since you cannot see inside it, judge it by what you can check.
A fair broker's slippage goes both ways. If every fill in your journal is worse than the price you asked for and none is better, that is a warning sign on any execution model.
How Brokers Make Money
| Revenue Source | A-Book (RoboForex) | B-Book (Market Makers) |
|---|---|---|
| Spread | Tight, from 0.0 pips | Often wider, marked up |
| Commission | Charged openly (Prime: $10 per $1M, about $2 per lot round trip) | Usually inside the spread |
| Your Losses | Not its revenue | Its revenue |
| Conflict | Small — it wants volume | Built in — it earns when you lose |
Why RoboForex for This Course
| Feature | RoboForex |
|---|---|
| Execution model | NDD on ECN and Prime; market execution on Pro and ProCent |
| Spreads | From 0.0 pips (ECN/Prime); EUR/USD averages 1.3 pips on Pro/ProCent |
| Leverage | Up to 1:2000 (offshore FSC Belize licence) |
| Min deposit | $10 |
| Instruments | 12,000+ (Forex, Stocks, Indices, Commodities) |
| Platforms | MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, R StocksTrader |
| Demo account | Free |
| Protection | Negative balance protection; Financial Commission fund up to €20,000 per complaint |
| Risk figure | 75.85% of retail CFD accounts lose money (RoboForex's own warning) |
| Copy trading | CopyFX built-in |
We use RoboForex and are its introducing partner (KXTL): RoboForex pays us a commission on accounts opened through our link.
Your broker choice is one of the most important decisions you'll make. On B-Book flow the house is betting against you; on A-Book flow the broker earns when you trade, not when you lose. You cannot see which book your order lands in — so check the licence, the costs, the published loss figure and your own fills.
The Hidden Layer Behind Your Trades
When you place a trade through an A-Book broker, your order doesn't just magically find a counterparty. It goes through liquidity providers (LPs) — major banks and financial institutions that constantly quote buy and sell prices.
The top-tier LPs include banks like JP Morgan, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, UBS, and Barclays. These institutions trade trillions of dollars daily and provide the "pool" of liquidity that retail brokers tap into.
How the Price Aggregation Works
Your ECN/STP broker connects to multiple LPs simultaneously and aggregates their quotes. When you see a spread of 0.2 pips on EUR/USD, that's the best available bid from one LP and the best available ask from another LP — assembled in real-time.
This competition between LPs is what keeps your costs low. More LPs competing = tighter spreads for you.
Why This Matters for Your Trading
Understanding this chain means you know:
- On A-Book flow, your fills come from the market — institutions quote the prices
- Spreads widen for a reason — during news events, LPs pull their quotes to manage risk
- Slippage happens legitimately — fast markets mean LPs adjust quotes before your order arrives
You cannot audit this chain from your platform. What you can audit is the result: your spreads against the published averages, and whether slippage in your journal goes both ways.
4. The Retail Trader's Edge — An Honest Conversation
Let's be real. Institutional traders have billion-dollar teams, nanosecond servers, and PhD quants. You have a laptop and this course.
So where's YOUR edge?
Your edge comes from:
- Patience — You don't HAVE to trade. Institutions must deploy capital. You can wait days for the perfect setup.
- Flexibility — Any market, any timeframe, any direction. No mandates.
- Size — Small positions = no market impact. You can trade setups institutions can't touch.
- No pressure — No investors demanding quarterly returns.
Imagine a huge sumo wrestler (that's the banks) fighting in a tiny hallway. He's massive and strong, but he CAN'T move freely. He HAS to stay in the hallway (he must keep trading). His coach keeps yelling at him (that's his boss wanting results every 3 months).
Now imagine you're a small, fast kid 🏃 You can CHOOSE which hallways to run down. You can wait outside and only go in when there's free pizza. You can run away if things get scary. Nobody's yelling at you.
Your superpower is: you can do NOTHING. The big guys can't. They HAVE to be in trades. You only jump in when it's perfect.
Your biggest edge is the ability to do NOTHING. The best traders spend most of their time waiting, not trading.
5. Why 90% of Traders Fail
Not a scare tactic — documented reality. Studies from major brokers consistently show 70-90% of retail traders lose money.
Imagine playing a video game on HARD MODE when you haven't even learned the controls yet. Then you keep smashing random buttons, getting mad when you die, and buying a different game every 2 weeks.
That's what 90% of traders do! They:
- Risk too much → Like betting ALL your lunch money on one coin flip
- Trade too much → Like swinging at every ball in baseball, even the bad ones
- Have no plan → Like driving somewhere without a map or GPS
- Chase losses → Like doubling your bet at the casino to "win it back" (spoiler: it doesn't work)
- Keep switching → Like learning piano for 2 weeks, then guitar, then drums, never getting good at ANY of them
The winners? They pick ONE thing, practice it forever, and only play when the odds are in their favor.
The Success Path
Traders who survive and profit share these traits:
- They treat trading as a skill (years, not days)
- They journal every single trade
- They risk 1-2% max per trade
- They have a written plan and follow it
- They focus on process, not profit
- They accept losses as business expenses
6. Trading vs. Investing vs. Gambling
These look similar but are fundamentally different. Know which one you're doing.
| Investing | Trading | Gambling | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Timeframe | Months to decades | Minutes to weeks | Instant |
| Based on | Fundamentals | Technical analysis + risk mgmt | Feelings & tips |
| Goal | Wealth building | Consistent income | Adrenaline |
| Example | Buy S&P 500, hold 20 years | Short EUR/USD at resistance with stop-loss | YOLO into a random stock tip |
If you can't explain your entry criteria, exit criteria, and risk parameters in three sentences — you don't have a strategy, you have a hope.
7. Your 12-Month Roadmap
Here's your journey. Every phase builds on the last. Don't skip ahead.
8. Setting Up Your RoboForex Account
Before Week 2, you need your trading account ready. We recommend starting with a ProCent account — this is a real money account whose balance is counted in US cents: $10 shows as 1,000, and 1 lot of EUR/USD moves 10 cents ($0.10) per pip instead of $10. You trade with real money but at micro-scale, so you experience real emotions and real consequences without significant risk. This builds the right habits from day one.
If you're not ready to deposit yet, you can start with a Demo Pro account instead — virtual money, zero risk, full learning. But switch to ProCent as soon as possible.
Why ProCent Over Demo?
| ProCent Account | Demo Account | |
|---|---|---|
| Real money | Yes (micro-scale) | No (virtual) |
| Emotions | Real fear & greed | None — it's fake |
| Habits | Builds discipline | Can breed recklessness |
| Min deposit | $10 | Free |
| Lot size | Cent lots (1 lot of EUR/USD = 10 cents = $0.10 per pip) | Standard (1 lot = $10 per pip) |
| Best for | Learning with real skin in the game | Getting familiar with the platform |
The #1 problem with demo trading is that it teaches you to be reckless because there's no real consequence. With a ProCent account and just $10-$50, you learn proper risk management, real emotions, and real discipline — but your maximum loss is pocket change.
If You Prefer Demo First
Open a Demo Pro account instead:
- Balance: $5,000-$10,000 virtual
- Treat virtual money as REAL
- Journal every trade
- Switch to ProCent as soon as you're comfortable with the platform
Account Rules
| Rule | Why |
|---|---|
| Treat every dollar as real | Reckless trading = bad habits |
| Use realistic position sizes | Don't over-leverage just because it's cents |
| Journal every trade | Build the habit NOW |
| Stay on ProCent/Demo until Month 7 | Patience = survival |
Trading $10 on a ProCent account teaches you more about yourself than $100,000 on demo. Real money, even tiny amounts, triggers real emotions — and managing those emotions IS the skill.
9. Action Items Checklist
Before Week 2, complete every item:
- Choose one primary asset class for the next 3 months (Forex recommended for beginners)
- Open a RoboForex ProCent account ($10-$50 deposit) or Demo Pro account
- Download and install MetaTrader 4
- Install TradingView (free account) for chart analysis
- Place and close one test trade on your account
- Start a trading journal (spreadsheet or notebook)
- Write your answer to: "Why do I want to trade?"
- Write your answer to: "How much time per day can I dedicate?"
- Explore RoboForex Members Area — find the fee schedule, leverage settings, and account types
Homework
- Account Exploration: Log into your RoboForex Members Area. Compare the ProCent, Pro, ECN, and Prime account types. Write down: which spreads each offers, the commission structure, and which one you'd choose for live trading (when the time comes).
- Market Hours Map: Draw a schedule showing Sydney, Tokyo, London, New York sessions. Mark the overlaps. Circle which sessions fit YOUR schedule — this determines when you'll trade on RoboForex.
- Failure Autopsy: Find one credible study on retail trader failure rates (ESMA reports work). Write a paragraph on the 3 biggest reasons traders fail, then one sentence on how you'll avoid each.
- Trading Plan — Page 1: Write: your asset class, capital (ProCent or demo), daily study hours, and a realistic 3-month goal. Hint: "Learn to read charts" beats "Make $10K."
- Platform Walkthrough: Spend 30 minutes exploring MetaTrader 4. Open a chart, switch timeframes (M15, H1, H4, D1), draw a horizontal line, place a limit order, and close it. Find where to check your spread and swap fees.
Demo-account task (demo money only, about 20 minutes)
Do this in a demo account (MT4/MT5 demo or TradingView paper trading), never with real money.
- Open a free demo account (MT4/MT5 demo or TradingView paper trading) with a balance close to what you would really trade - e.g. $1,000, not $100,000.
- Find EUR/USD, one index (e.g. US500) and gold in the platform. For each, write down the spread shown right now and the contract size of 1 lot.
- Place one 0.01-lot market buy on EUR/USD and close it straight away. Note what the trade cost you (spread + commission) before price moved at all.
- Write down: the three spreads, the cost of the round trip, and one sentence on why a demo balance should match your real one.
Quick Knowledge Check
- What are the three primary functions of financial markets? Answer: Capital allocation, price discovery, and risk transfer.
- What is the difference between an A-Book and B-Book broker? Answer: A-Book passes orders to liquidity providers (the broker earns spread and commission, not your losses). B-Book takes the other side of your trade (profits when you lose). Most retail brokers mix both.
- Name three edges retail traders have over institutions. Answer: Patience (no obligation to trade), flexibility (any market/timeframe), size advantage (no market impact).
- What are the five fatal mistakes that cause most traders to fail? Answer: No risk management, overtrading, no plan, chasing losses, switching strategies constantly.
- What's the key difference between trading and gambling? Answer: Trading has a defined, repeatable edge with positive expectancy and risk management. Gambling relies on luck with no defined edge.