Go from market basics to your first strategy.

A free, 200-lesson curriculum for high-school students, covering markets, accounting, valuation, statistics, options, portfolio theory, and algorithmic trading, with quizzes, real data, hands-on tools, and competitions.

10 units
A complete path from market basics to quant trading
200 lessons
Short explanations, examples, activities, and quizzes
80% to pass
Clear each lesson's quiz before it moves to your completed track
Real data
Apply what you learn to actual companies and economic data

Try your first lesson

Why does a stock price move?

Here is a real piece of Lesson 1. Read it, answer the question, and see how the lessons actually work.

A price is not handed down from above. It is not a measured fact like the temperature outside. It is the point where the opinions of many buyers and sellers happen to balance right now. If enough people change their minds, the price moves. That is really all a price move is.

Example

A company reports much higher profits than investors expected. Within minutes, more people want to buy the stock than sell it, so the agreed price jumps. Nothing physical changed. The crowd's opinion of the company's value did.

Quick check: a company reports much higher profits than expected, and its stock jumps within minutes. Which market job are you watching?
That is one question from one lesson. There are 200 more, each ending in a five-question quiz.
Continue learning free

Inside a lesson

A lesson is more than something you read.

Every lesson mixes a few things so the idea actually sticks, then checks that it did.

01

Clear explanation

Plain language, no jargon dumped on you. Each term is defined the first time it shows up.

02

Worked example

A real number run all the way through, like a compound-interest calculation or a simple order book.

03

Interactive activity

A matching task, a scenario, or a calculation you actually do, not just watch someone else do.

04

Five-question quiz

Score 80% to pass and move the lesson into your completed track. You get feedback on every answer.

More than a curriculum

The tools you learn on.

The lessons are the core. Around them is everything you need to actually use what you learn.

Strategy tester

Write a trading strategy in Python and backtest it on real price history, right in your browser. Submit your best runs to a leaderboard that re-checks every number, so nobody can fake a score.

Research desk

Live charts, real quotes, company financials, a two-stock compare, and economic data from the Fed. Look up any company and dig into it.

Daily market call

Before the open each trading day, call whether the market closes higher or lower. Get it right and earn points.

Competitions

Hackathons, strategy tournaments, and stock-pitch challenges through the year. Enter on your own or with a team.

Points, streaks, and badges

What you do adds up as you go, and the weekly and all-time leaderboards show where you stand against everyone else.

Tutoring

Stuck on something? Ask a certified tutor for help, or sign up to tutor others once you have a topic down.

Learn it, then use it

The tools pick up where the lessons leave off.

You do not just read about a concept. You take it straight to real data and try it yourself.

Learn

Moving averages

Pick them up in the technical-analysis unit, with a worked example.

Explore

On a live chart

Pull up a real ticker on the research desk and see the average plotted on it.

Build

As a strategy

Turn it into a Python strategy and backtest it in the strategy tester.

QUANTITATIVE FINANCEBACKTESTINGOPTIONSPORTFOLIO THEORYMACROVALUATIONALGORITHMIC TRADINGRISK MANAGEMENTDERIVATIVESMARKET DATAPROBABILITYTHE GREEKSFACTOR INVESTINGMEAN REVERSIONVOLATILITY QUANTITATIVE FINANCEBACKTESTINGOPTIONSPORTFOLIO THEORYMACROVALUATIONALGORITHMIC TRADINGRISK MANAGEMENTDERIVATIVESMARKET DATAPROBABILITYTHE GREEKSFACTOR INVESTINGMEAN REVERSIONVOLATILITY

Competitions

Not just studying. Competing.

The lessons give you the tools. Competitions are where you put them up against other students. We run them through the year, and more are on the way as FQS grows.

  • Hackathons, strategy tournaments, and stock-pitch challenges.
  • Enter on your own or with a team.
  • Build a strategy, pitch a company, or ship something in a weekend.
  • Submit your work and see where you land.
How competitions work →

Common questions

Before you start.

Do I need any finance background?

None. Unit 1 starts with what a market is and how an exchange works. If you can read and do basic algebra, you're ready. The later units get genuinely quantitative, but you build up to them.

Is it really free?

Yes. Creating an account, the full 200-lesson curriculum, the research desk, the strategy tester, the daily call, and competition entry are all free.

How long does a lesson take?

About 10 to 20 minutes. Each one is a short explanation, an example or activity, and a five-question quiz. Your progress saves as you go, so you can stop and pick up later.

Where does the market data come from?

Live quotes and fundamentals come from public market data providers, macro series come from the Federal Reserve's FRED database, and charts are powered by TradingView. It's for learning, not for live trading decisions.

Start with the first lesson.

Free to join. No finance background needed.

Start Lesson 1