Author: Jenna Lofton

Updated: May 8, 2026 Key Takeaways A stock market correction is a decline of 10 to 20 percent from a recent peak. It is a normal and recurring feature of healthy markets, not a signal that something has permanently broken. Corrections differ from bear markets (20 percent or more decline) and crashes (sudden, dramatic drops…

Updated: May 7, 2026 Key Takeaways Liquidity measures how quickly you can buy or sell a stock without significantly moving its price. High liquidity means easy entry and exit. Low liquidity means the opposite. Trading volume is the primary measure of stock liquidity. High-volume stocks like Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL) can absorb large orders…

Updated: May 7, 2026 Key Takeaways A stock’s float is the number of shares actually available for public trading — not the total shares outstanding. Float excludes shares held by insiders, institutions with lockup agreements, and employee stock ownership plans. Low float stocks are more volatile and harder to exit quickly. High float stocks offer…

Updated: May 7, 2026 Key Takeaways A margin account lets you borrow money from your brokerage to buy more securities than your cash balance would otherwise allow. Your deposited cash serves as the collateral for that loan. The Federal Reserve requires a minimum deposit of $2,000 to open a margin account. Most brokerages allow you…

Updated: May 7, 2026 Key Takeaways Day trading means opening and closing all positions within a single market session. No overnight exposure, but smaller profit windows per trade. Swing trading means holding positions for two days to several months to capture larger price moves. More profit potential per trade, but overnight and weekend risk is…

Updated: May 7, 2026 Key Takeaways Day trading requires a strict personal code of conduct, not just market knowledge. The traders who survive long-term follow rules consistently, especially when it’s hard. Information quality, emotional discipline, and position sizing matter more than finding the perfect stock pick. Margin trading and penny stocks are tools that can…

Updated: May 7, 2026 Key Takeaways Swing trading means holding a position for more than one trading session, typically anywhere from two days to a few months, to capture a meaningful price move. It sits between day trading (close everything before the bell) and long-term investing (hold for years), which makes it appealing but also…

Updated: May 7, 2026 Key Takeaways The single biggest mistake beginner investors make is skipping the fundamentals and jumping straight into trading. Learn how the market works before you put real money at risk. Long-term thinking beats short-term trading for most people, most of the time. Patience is a genuine edge in the stock market….

Updated: May 7, 2026 Key Takeaways A double bottom pattern is a W-shaped chart formation that signals a potential reversal from a downtrend to an uptrend. It forms when a stock drops to a support level, bounces, pulls back to near the same low, and then bounces again with increasing momentum. The two lows should…