Investors Underground are our pick as the best overall stock trading class of 2023 based on price, materials, and support
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An increasing number of people are turning to stock trading as a way to supplement their income, and those who are the most committed can do quite well financially.
However, the learning curve for becoming a successful stock trader can be very steep. It's possible to learn stock trading theory by reading a book, but gaining the practical knowledge, skills, and confidence to trade with your own money requires more extensive training with real-time support. That's what a high-quality online stock trading course can offer.
We examined over 15 of the most popular stock trading classes, and rated them on important criteria like cost, access to instructors and a trading community, availability of free course materials, and unique features. Below you'll see our picks for the best stock trading classes online; they offer the most value for your money, with comprehensive education covering beginner to advanced skills.
The Best Online Stock Trading Classes of 2023:
- Best Overall: Investors Underground
- Best for Beginners: Udemy
- Best Value: Bullish bears
- Best Free Option: TD Ameritrade
- Best for Technical Analysis: Skillshare
- Best for Day Traders: Bear Bull Traders
- Best for Live Training: Bulls on Wall Street
- Best for University Education: Coursera
- Best for Emerging/Alternative Markets: Financial Edge
BEST OVERALLInvestors Underground
- Cost: $997+
- Trial: No
- Live trade room: Yes
Investors Underground (IU) has the most complete offering by far. With a clear educational path at a fairly reasonable price, it's our choice as the best overall stock trading course.
Well-established with a solid reputation
Large and active chat room
Access to mentors, including the founder
Pricing is on the high end
Trading courses sold separately from the primary subscription for around $1,000
IU's Textbook Trading course was one of the first of its kind designed for those with only basic knowledge of trading. Although it starts out with the basics, it quickly moves to more advanced topics, including the application of trading tools and actionable trading setups.
From there, students move right into the Tandem Trader, a 12-hour advanced day trading course. What's unique about this course is that in addition to the standard educational content used in advanced classes, Tandem Trader includes screenshots of live trades made by Michaud along with his tick-by-tick commentary, showing students how it feels to trade right alongside a top trader. It's one thing to learn trading theory; it's entirely different to see trading setups play out in real time.
Following that, you'll take the Swing Trading course, featuring over six hours of content on swing trading methodology and strategy. You'll learn the foundations of swing trading, along with advanced technical analysis, how to analyze long and short-chart patterns, and how to identify key price levels.
You can purchase courses individually or combined with a monthly, quarterly, or annual paid membership. Adding trading courses to the monthly subscription ($297 per month) or quarterly subscription ($697 per quarter) will cost you an additional $1,000. And with an annual subscription ($1,897 annually), IU's trading courses will cost $800, for a total investment of $2,697 in your first year of Investors Underground. The yearly subscription is the best value for up-and-coming traders who want to learn and practice at their own pace.
BEST FOR BEGINNERSUdemy
- Cost: $49.99
- Trial: Yes
- Live trade room: No
Udemy offers a wide range of beginner stock trading courses at remarkably low prices, making it our choice as the best course provider for newbies. Its affordable prices make Udemy an attractive choice for anyone who wants to see if stock trading is for them without committing too much.
Low prices
Comprehensive courses
Extensive course selection
No opportunity for practical application
No chat rooms
No coaching
For those brand new to stock investing, Udemy offers Stock Market from Scratch for Complete Beginners. Regularly priced at $49.99, the course includes six sections with 51 lectures for a total of 6.5 hours of instruction. There is often a steep discount available.
With that foundation of knowledge, you can move up to The Complete Foundation Stock Trading Course, available for $179.99 with steep discounts again available. The course takes you further up the learning curve to better understand how the stock market works, how orders are placed, and how to perform risk management, along with an introduction to chart analysis.
Then, for a deeper dive into stock trading, you could take the Complete Day Trading Course, which focuses on the skill of technical analysis. Students learn how to trade more than 16 chart patterns and understand performance indicators. For $129.99, you receive 10 hours of on-demand video, 11 downloadable resources, and full lifetime access. Like Udemy's other courses, you can usually catch a large promotional discount.
All courses are taught using pre-recorded video lessons that include expert instruction with demonstrations of trading techniques. The downside of Udemy's courses is that there are no opportunities for practical application or live instruction, although you may be able to ask questions of the instructor. For more, see Udemy's full selection of stock trading classes.
BEST VALUEBullish Bears
- Cost: Free courses; $47/month or $247/year membership
- Trial: No
- Live trade room: Yes
With a variety of courses available without a membership and affordable membership fees, Bullish Bears is our pick as the online stock trading course with the best value.
Courses on a variety of topics, available without a membership
Affordable monthly and annual memberships
Membership comes with live trade room access, live trading advice, trade alerts, and more
No free trial
No refunds
If you want a lot for your money, consider a subscription to Bullish Bears. For $47 per month or $247 per year, you’ll get access to a variety of teaching tools, including:
- Courses on 10 topics, like day trading, options, candlesticks, and the ThinkorSwim and Interactive Brokers platforms
- Access to live trade rooms and real-time instruction
- Live trade streaming video and replays
- Trade alerts and watch lists
- Access to a custom-built Discord chat with bots and trading tools
Bullish Bears offers a comprehensive package, from courses you can complete on your own time to community-based lessons and trade room experiences. The classes can help you get started or master certain topics, and they include a paper simulator so you can put your ideas into practice risk-free. But many students will get a lot out of the live trade room and streaming video as well—it’s one thing to learn about trading, but it can be much more valuable to see it done in front of you.
If you choose the annual membership, you’ll get all that for only about $21 per month, a great price for access to classes, experienced trading mentors, and a trade room. If you’d rather not spring for a membership, you can still take all of Bullish Bears’ courses for free.
BEST FREE OPTIONTD Ameritrade
- Cost: Free
- Trial: No
- Live trade room: No
Offering a massive range of topics from investing basics to trading strategy guides, the investing and trading library from TD Ameritrade is useful for beginners and seasoned stock traders alike—and it's free.
Offered by a renowned stock brokerage firm
A vast library of content
Variety of interactive platforms
No coaching or interaction with other traders
TD Ameritrade has been a dominant player in the self-directed trading space for decades, and it has always made investor education a cornerstone of its service. Whether you are a newbie or an advanced trader, TD Ameritrade's vast library of videos, education guides, tutorials, and webinars can help you get to the next level—free of charge.
While you do need to open a TD Ameritrade account to access its education center, you're not required to make a minimum investment. So, when you've learned enough to begin, your trading account is set up and ready to go.
In addition to guides, videos, and tutorials, the educational library includes fun animations, vocabulary dictionaries, and quizzes. Many of the courses are paired with webcasts and other events, including live classroom instruction at a local TD Ameritrade office. Most of the educational content is also available on a mobile app.
Topics range from the basics, such as Simple Steps for a Retirement Portfolio, to the advanced, such as Options for Volatility.
BEST FOR TECHNICAL ANALYSISSkillshare
- Cost: $167.88 per year
- Trial: 1-month free trial
- Live trade room: No
Many classes include technical analysis as part of their offering, but you’ll find several highly rated Skillshare courses that focus on this skill alone. You must pay to become a member of Skillshare, but that membership comes with access to the full catalog of Skillshare courses; you can try it for a month for free to see if it’s a good fit. These combined benefits make Skillshare our pick as the best online stock trading course for technical analysis.
Nearly 7 hours of content
Learn about a wide variety of chart patterns
High ratings from students
One affordable membership includes access to hundreds of classes
No trade room or live instructor
Can’t buy individual classes
Must maintain Skillshare membership to access course
Skillshare's top technical analysis course, titled Technical Analysis Day Trading / Swing Trading Strategies for Stocks Crypto Forex Commodities Options, assumes a bit of starting knowledge but begins with an introduction to common terminology. You’ll learn about the instructor’s trading philosophy (“trade like a casino”), before getting into how to understand order books and set up your trading platform.
From there, you’ll dive into the details of technical indicators, support and resistance levels, and common chart patterns to use for day trading. The class finishes up with discussions of more advanced topics, like relative strength indicators and Fibonacci analysis. The strategies taught are meant to be applicable to day trading and swing trading in all kinds of markets (stocks, options, crypto, etc.).
If you finish up that class and want another angle on technical analysis, consider Stock Trading & Bitcoin/Cryptocurrency Trading Course | Technical Analysis: Beginner to Pro. Or browse the full selection of Skillshare’s stock trading courses here.
You can discuss the class material with other students, and in some cases with the instructor. Skillshare courses are available online and by mobile app; members can download videos to watch offline, but only through the mobile app.
BEST FOR DAY TRADERSBear Bull Traders
- Cost: $99+ monthly
- Trial: $39 for a 7-day trial
- Live trade room: Yes
The Bear Bull Traders learning platform includes a variety of resources for day trading and is offered at very reasonable prices, making it a great value as well as our pick as the best for day traders. There are less expensive stock trading courses, but if you want to ensure you have access to all the learning resources you'll need to succeed, it makes sense to pay just a little bit more.
Extensive library of videos and high-level trading tutorials
Access to a professional trading simulator
Helpful trader community with support from chat room monitors
Designated chat rooms for various forms of trading
Webinars are only available to annual subscribers
7-day trial membership is not free
Since its founding in 2016, the Bear Bull Traders online community has become one of the more popular among active day traders. Besides its vast library of educational resources, Bear Bull Traders provides members with ongoing support through member meetups and its crew of chat room monitors. Members can access the trade simulator for about $100 per month to hone their skills with paper trading before going live with their own money at stake.
Chat rooms and active discussion forums are some of the best learning experiences a stock trading course can offer. Bear Bull Traders has designated chat rooms for day trading, swing trading, options, forex, and trading psychology.
More importantly, members have access to experienced mentors, including founder Andrew Aziz.
Bear Bull Traders offers a two-tiered membership, Basic or Elite. Both the Basic plan ($99 per month) and Elite plan ($199 per month) are cancellable at any time. If you're ready for a longer commitment, you can save by purchasing an Elite Annual subscription for a yearly payment of $1,199. Basic membership gets you access to the live chat rooms and the basic lessons, while the Elite membership adds webinars, mentorship, and access to the trading psychology team. BBT also offers a seven-day trial membership for $39.
BEST FOR LIVE TRAININGBulls on Wall Street
- Cost: $199/month or $1,499/year
- Trial: No
- Live trade room: Yes
Bulls on Wall Street's training boot camp is unique in the industry. It's a bit different now than when it launched, but it still offers comprehensive personalized support for members, making it the best stock trading course for live training.
Established company with a solid reputation
Personalized training
Access to the trading simulator with mentor feedback
Reasonably priced subscription options
No trial membership is available
Established in 2008, Bulls on Wall Street is one of the older stock trading course providers. Its founder, Kunal Desai, has been an active day trader since 1999. Desai intended to make this trading course a more personalized experience for members, and the Accelerated Trading Course has become the cornerstone of his offering. A Bulls Vision subscription costs $199 per month or $1,499 annually.
The boot camp classes, which were once live, are now accessible on demand. Students will attend live market recaps with Desai three times a week, plus Sunday "market hurdles." You'll go over Desai's weekly trades, discuss the state of the market, and find potential good stocks for next week.
Students can also join the Bulls Vision day trading chatroom, featuring Desai's live cam feed so you can watch him trade, have actionable trade ideas, and access live market recaps and advanced platform tutorials.
The annual subscription includes all of the above plus a trading toolkit course book, live event access, and a personalized strategic account executive.
BEST FOR UNIVERSITY EDUCATIONCoursera
- Cost: Free
- Trial: One free learning program with a Coursera subscription
- Live trade room: No
Coursera’s Stocks and bonds classes are available for free; it just requires a basic Coursera membership at no cost. (Coursera’s paid membership has a free trial as well.) It is presented by the University of Michigan and is taught by Professor Gautam Kaul, a highly-rated instructor, making it our pick as the best online stock trading course for university education
Highly rated course and instructor
High-level analysis of markets, pricing, and valuation
Part of a multi-course specialization track
Relatively little video instruction
No instructor interaction
The course is meant for beginners, but it requires some basic understanding of algebra. It applies the Time Value of Money (TVM) concept to understand stocks and bonds. TVM is a fundamental idea in finance. It states that a particular sum of money is worth more now than it’ll be worth in the future, due to its earning potential in the meantime.
Stocks and Bonds will take about 10 hours to complete. It’s designed to be taken over four weeks, but you can reset the deadlines to learn at your own pace. It consists of a few hours of video, along with some reading materials and quizzes.
The first week will introduce some common vocabulary and discuss how bonds are valued. In the next week, you’ll look at real market data to understand how bonds are priced, and you’ll submit your first assignment. In the following two weeks, you’ll go through the same process with stocks, learning how stocks affect company operations and submitting a final assignment. When you finish up you’ll be awarded a certificate of completion.
Stocks and Bonds is part of a four-month specialization track, the Foundational Finance for Strategic Decision-Making Specialization, which is designed to provide a deep understanding of personal finance. Coursera offers a variety of free and paid finance classes from prestigious universities.
BEST FOR EMERGING/ALTERNATIVE MARKETSFinancial Edge
- Cost: $99
- Trial: No
- Live trade room: No
Financial is our pick as the best for emerging/alternative markets because it offers lifetime access to education on both topics. Additionally, students can reach out with questions and receive help directly from instructors.
Direct instructor help
CPD-certified course
Lifetime access
No practical exercises
Somewhat short
Financial Edge’s Traditional & Alternative Investments class is relatively short, at 2.5 hours, but it gets straight to the point.
Emerging markets are typically considered to be those of countries with rapidly expanding or improving economies, which generally have high rewards and high risks. Alternative investments are those that don’t fit into conventional categories of equity, income, and cash. This course will teach you how to think about both.
You’ll start with a few sessions on the basics, like understanding equity, valuation, and financial statements, before learning about different market sectors (industrials and financials). The class then discusses how emerging markets and alternative investments fit in before getting into some of the main investment strategies—hedge funds, private equity, and venture capital.
When you’re through with the course, you should have a firm grasp of how to trade in emerging markets. And whether or not you plan to work in a hedge fund, you’ll see how they and other alternative investment strategies influence the world and the markets.
It’s not the cheapest course, at $99, but you’ll get direct help from the instructor and lifetime access to the class materials. The Traditional and Alternative Investments course is CPD-certified (Continuing Professional Development) by The CPD Certification Service; some employers and organizations track CPD points, and this class will count.1
Final Verdict
All of the stock trading classes reviewed here are worthy of consideration by traders of all levels of experience—from neophyte to advanced. However, Investors Underground is the best overall, with more complete course offerings than its competitors. It also has a solid reputation in the industry and reasonable pricing for its extensive offerings.
Compare the Best Stock Trading Classes:-
Company | Cost | Trial | Live Trade Room |
---|---|---|---|
Investors UndergroundBest Overall | $997+ | No | Yes |
UdemyBest for Beginners | $49.99 | Yes | No |
Bullish BearsBest Value | Free courses; $47/month or $247/year membership | No | Yes |
SkillshareBest for Technical Analysis | $167.88/year | 1-month free trial | No |
Bear Bull TradersBest for Day Traders | $99+ monthly | $39 for a 7-day trial | Yes |
Bulls on Wall StreetBest for Live Training | $199/month or $1,499/year | No | Yes |
CourseraBest for University Education | Free | Yes (for paid service) | No |
Financial EdgeBest for Emerging/Alternative Markets | $99 | No | No |
TD AmeritradeBest Free Option | Free | No | No |
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