https://zerotoinvest.com/en/Understand investing before you do itenhttps://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/checklist-before-your-first-euro/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/checklist-before-your-first-euro/Before you invest, you need three things: no expensive debt, a cushion for emergencies and money you won't need for a few years.Stage 0https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/emergency-fund/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/emergency-fund/Your emergency fund is three to six months of expenses in an account you can reach at any time. It's not meant to grow.Stage 0https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/expensive-debt/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/expensive-debt/As long as you carry high interest debt, paying it off is the best investment you can make: a sure, tax free return equal to the loan's interest rate.Stage 0https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/household-budget/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/household-budget/How much you save each month shapes your result most. You need three numbers: fixed costs, variable costs and a reserve for costs that only come once a year.Stage 0https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/insurance-before-wealth/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/insurance-before-wealth/Insure what could ruin you financially and carry what you can pay yourself. A single large uninsured loss can wipe out a portfolio that took years to build.Stage 0https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/goal-and-time-horizon/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/goal-and-time-horizon/First comes the question of when you need the money, then how to invest it. Money you need in two years doesn't belong in investments that swing a lot.Stage 0https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/loss-tolerance/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/loss-tolerance/How much risk suits you has two sides: what you can afford financially and what your nerves can take. The smaller of the two limits always applies.Stage 0https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/when-investing-makes-no-sense/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/when-investing-makes-no-sense/There are situations in life where investing is the wrong decision. This page tells you openly which ones.Stage 0https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/what-is-money/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/what-is-money/Money has no value of its own. It is a promise that others will give you something for it, and because new money keeps being added, it buys less over time.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/inflation/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/inflation/Inflation means the same money buys a little less every year. At three percent a year it buys only half as much after about 23 years.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/return/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/return/Return is what you earn relative to what you put in. Always ask: per year or in total, before or after costs, before or after inflation.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/compound-interest/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/compound-interest/With compound interest your earnings earn more earnings. For a long time not much seems to happen, and the effect only gets really big in the later years.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/risk-and-return/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/risk-and-return/On average you only get more return by taking on more risk. If someone promises high returns without risk, they've missed something or are trying to fool you.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/what-is-an-exchange/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/what-is-an-exchange/A stock exchange is a regulated marketplace where buy and sell orders meet. When you buy a share there, you almost always buy it from another investor.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/what-is-a-stock/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/what-is-a-stock/A share means you own a small piece of a company. You get part of the profit, and in return you share the risk when things go badly.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/what-is-a-bond/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/what-is-a-bond/With a bond you lend money to a government or a company. You get fixed interest and your money back at the end, provided the borrower can still pay by then.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/what-is-an-etf/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/what-is-an-etf/An ETF is an exchange-traded fund that simply copies a whole market. With one purchase you own small stakes in hundreds or thousands of companies.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/funds-vs-etf/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/funds-vs-etf/Active funds try to beat the market and charge much higher fees for it. Over long periods only a minority succeeds, and nobody knows in advance which funds.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/what-is-a-cryptocurrency/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/what-is-a-cryptocurrency/A cryptocurrency is an entry in a ledger kept jointly by many computers, with no bank or authority in between.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/blockchain-explained/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/blockchain-explained/A blockchain is a ledger that many people keep at the same time. Anyone who changes something in it afterwards is spotted straight away.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/investing-vs-trading/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/investing-vs-trading/Investing means taking a stake in something that creates value and then waiting. Trading means trying to make money from price movements.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/why-invest-instead-of-trade/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/why-invest-instead-of-trade/Studies spanning decades keep reaching the same result: the more private investors trade, the worse they do.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/supply-and-demand/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/supply-and-demand/A price moves when investors' expectations change. News everyone expected hardly moves it. It's the surprises that do.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/who-moves-the-markets/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/who-moves-the-markets/Most exchange trading comes from large institutions and computer programs. Private investors are a small part, and a professional is usually on the other side.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/bull-bear-bubbles/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/bull-bear-bubbles/You hear bull market, bear market, crash and bubble all the time, but they're rarely explained. The most important thing first: declines aren't the exception.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/common-beginner-mistakes/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/common-beginner-mistakes/Many beginners' losses go back to a handful of mistakes that keep repeating. Once you know them, you've already covered a good part of the way.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/savings-and-term-deposits/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/savings-and-term-deposits/You can get at instant access savings any day, but the interest rate can change. A fixed term deposit locks your money up for a set time at a fixed rate.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/gold-and-precious-metals/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/gold-and-precious-metals/Gold pays no interest, rent or dividend. Over very long periods it has preserved purchasing power, but there were also decades with no real return.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/commodities/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/commodities/You can hardly store oil, copper or wheat yourself. So investors buy commodities through futures contracts, and those bring costs that surprise many people.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/real-estate-and-reits/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/real-estate-and-reits/A property of your own is a single, very large investment, usually bought on credit and with a lot of work attached.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/tangible-assets/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/tangible-assets/Watches, art, wine and classic cars can rise in value. But they are hard to sell, trading is costly and the return figures you read are mostly flattering.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/asset-class-comparison/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/asset-class-comparison/Here you see everything from this level at a glance: what each asset class does, what it costs, how much it swings and what it's good for.Stage 1https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/finding-a-reputable-broker/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/finding-a-reputable-broker/First check whether the provider is authorised by a financial regulator in the EU. Only once that's settled is it worth looking at fees and the app.Stage 2https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/broker-comparison/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/broker-comparison/The order fee in the ad is often the smallest part of your costs. Spread, trading venues, foreign currency fees and free savings plans matter more.Stage 2https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/deposit-protection/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/deposit-protection/Your securities belong to you and are protected if the broker goes bust. Cash in the settlement account is a deposit and only covered up to €100,000.Stage 2https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/opening-a-brokerage-account/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/opening-a-brokerage-account/You can usually open a brokerage account in under half an hour. Three steps matter: proving your identity, the settlement account and questions on experience.Stage 2https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/crypto-exchange-vs-broker/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/crypto-exchange-vs-broker/At a broker you usually buy a security that tracks the price of a cryptocurrency. At a crypto exchange you buy the coins themselves.Stage 2https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/wallet-and-seed-phrase/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/wallet-and-seed-phrase/A wallet doesn't hold coins, it holds the keys to them. Anyone who knows your seed phrase has full access. Anyone who loses it loses everything, for good.Stage 2https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/not-your-keys/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/not-your-keys/If you don't hold the keys yourself, you don't own coins. You own the platform's promise. Several big collapses showed what that promise is worth in a crisis.Stage 2https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/trading-interface/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/trading-interface/Chart, order book, positions overview and order ticket look similar almost everywhere. If you know what you're looking at, you'll make far fewer input mistakes.Stage 2https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/order-types/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/order-types/A market order makes sure you buy straight away, but not at what price. A limit order fixes the price, but not whether you buy at all.Stage 2https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/setting-a-stop-loss/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/setting-a-stop-loss/A stop loss limits your loss but doesn't guarantee a price. It belongs where your reason for buying no longer holds, not where your preferred loss amount lies.Stage 2https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/spread-slippage-liquidity/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/spread-slippage-liquidity/When you buy shares, ETFs or coins, you pay more than the fee on your statement. Spread and slippage cost you money without showing up anywhere as costs.Stage 2https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/fees/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/fees/The order fee you see is only part of it. Fund charges, custody fees, foreign currency mark ups and the spread often weigh more, because they keep coming back.Stage 2https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/currency-risk/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/currency-risk/With investments abroad, the currency moves as well as the price. What counts is the currency the fund's companies earn their money in, not the one you buy in.Stage 2https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/trading-hours/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/trading-hours/Outside the main trading hours, spreads are wider and prices worse. Crypto markets run around the clock, and that brings its own problems.Stage 2https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/savings-plan/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/savings-plan/A savings plan automatically buys the same amount every month. It doesn't earn you more. Its value is that you no longer have to decide each time.Stage 2https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/paper-trading/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/paper-trading/Practising without real money helps you with routines and rules. But you won't find out whether you can handle losses, because the feeling is missing entirely.Stage 2https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/first-simulated-order/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/first-simulated-order/Here you go through your first purchase step by step, with the checks to make before sending. It's meant for a demo account or a very small real amount.Stage 2https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/capital-preservation/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/capital-preservation/Anyone who loses their money has nothing left to win the loss back with. So before any question about returns comes the question of how to stay in the game.Stage 3https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/one-percent-rule/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/one-percent-rule/A common upper limit is to risk at most one percent of your account per position. That way you survive even a long run of failures and can keep going.Stage 3https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/position-size/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/position-size/How big your position may be follows from the loss you allow divided by the distance to your stop loss. You calculate it instead of deciding by gut feeling.Stage 3https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/risk-reward-ratio/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/risk-reward-ratio/The reward to risk ratio compares the possible gain with the possible loss. Together with the win rate, it decides whether a strategy can work at all.Stage 3https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/expected-value/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/expected-value/Expected value sums up win rate, average gain and average loss in one number. Only that number tells you whether a strategy holds up in the long run.Stage 3https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/drawdown/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/drawdown/Losses and gains aren't symmetrical. The deeper a decline, the bigger the gain you need afterwards just to get back to zero.Stage 3https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/diversification/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/diversification/Diversification only works if your investments behave differently. Ten stocks from the same sector are ten positions, but hardly any diversification.Stage 3https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/leverage/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/leverage/Leverage magnifies gains and losses in the same proportion and shortens the path to a forced close. At leverage 20, a five percent price drop wipes you out.Stage 3https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/liquidation/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/liquidation/In a liquidation the provider force closes your leveraged position because your collateral no longer covers it.Stage 3https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/cfd/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/cfd/A CFD is a leveraged bet on a price difference without owning the security. Providers must state how many retail clients lose money, usually 65 to 80 percent.Stage 3https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/fear-and-greed/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/fear-and-greed/The two strongest forces in the market don't appear on any chart. They sit in your head and make people often buy high and sell low.Stage 3https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/fomo/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/fomo/The fear of missing out is a common reason for getting in at a bad moment: when a move has already happened.Stage 3https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/loss-aversion/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/loss-aversion/Losses hurt more than equal gains please. That's why people hold losers too long and sell winners too early.Stage 3https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/confirmation-bias/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/confirmation-bias/When you own a stock, you unconsciously look for news that confirms the purchase and skim over everything that speaks against it.Stage 3https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/overtrading/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/overtrading/Trading too often means more fees and more mistakes. The revenge trade after a loss is an especially dangerous form and has emptied many accounts.Stage 3https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/trading-journal/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/trading-journal/Without records you remember your winners and forget your losers. A journal is a good way to see how you're really doing.Stage 3https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/when-to-stop/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/when-to-stop/Stopping isn't failing. It's a perfectly normal decision, and there are clear signs that carrying on no longer makes sense.Stage 3https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/fundamental-vs-technical/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/fundamental-vs-technical/Fundamental analysis asks what something is worth. Technical analysis asks what the price is doing right now.Stage 4https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/reading-charts/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/reading-charts/A candle sums up four values for a period: open, close, high and low. Together with volume, that's everything a chart tells you.Stage 4https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/spotting-trends/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/spotting-trends/An uptrend consists of ever higher highs and ever higher lows, a downtrend of the opposite. The rule is simple. Applying it in a live market isn't.Stage 4https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/support-and-resistance/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/support-and-resistance/Support and resistance are price zones where a move has stopped several times before. They work through real orders and because many watch the same lines.Stage 4https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/trendlines/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/trendlines/A trend line connects successive lows or highs. It helps bring order to a chart, but it's easy to draw it so it fits your own opinion.Stage 4https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/chart-patterns/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/chart-patterns/The well known chart patterns are vivid, but hard to define clearly. Where they've been rigorously tested, the results are mostly weak.Stage 4https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/moving-averages/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/moving-averages/A moving average smooths the price history by averaging over the last few days. It shows the direction more clearly, but always follows it with a delay.Stage 4https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/indicators/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/indicators/RSI, MACD and Bollinger Bands are three widely used indicators. All three are calculated from the price history, each in a different way.Stage 4https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/indicator-limits/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/indicator-limits/Every indicator is calculated from past prices and can therefore only describe what has already happened. Expecting more of it means misunderstanding the tool.Stage 4https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/reading-a-balance-sheet/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/reading-a-balance-sheet/The balance sheet shows what a company owns and how it paid for it. For a first impression, four items are enough: assets, debt, equity and cash.Stage 4https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/key-financial-ratios/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/key-financial-ratios/Key figures sum up a company in a few values. Within one industry they are useful. Compared across different industries, they lead you astray.Stage 4https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/annual-report/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/annual-report/An annual report often has three hundred pages, and only about ten of them really matter. If you know which ones, you need half an hour.Stage 4https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/company-valuation/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/company-valuation/What a company is worth follows from all the payments it will make to its owners in future, converted to today. The calculation is simple.Stage 4https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/on-chain-analysis/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/on-chain-analysis/On public blockchains anyone can see every transfer, and key figures can be built from that. They tell you little, as you rarely know who owns an address.Stage 4https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/tokenomics/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/tokenomics/Tokenomics describes how many tokens exist, who holds them and when new ones appear. If you skip this, you often buy into a setup designed to work against you.Stage 4https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/checking-a-whitepaper/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/checking-a-whitepaper/Most warning signs are in the document itself or conspicuously missing from it. The top three: anonymous founders, missing technical substance, return promises.Stage 4https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/interest-rates-and-economic-data/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/interest-rates-and-economic-data/The policy rate is one of the most important numbers for financial markets, because many investments have to measure up to it.Stage 4https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/news-priced-in/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/news-priced-in/By the time a news item reaches you, professionals have long since processed it. Only the surprising part can be traded, and you don't see it in time.Stage 4https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/evaluating-sources/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/evaluating-sources/The key question for any financial source: how does it make its money? Someone who earns when you trade advises you differently from someone who doesn't.Stage 4https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/portfolio-theory/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/portfolio-theory/A portfolio becomes good through how its parts work together, not because each part is the best on its own.Stage 5https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/correlation/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/correlation/Correlation measures how much two investments move in step. It decides whether diversification works, and unfortunately it doesn't always stay the same.Stage 5https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/rebalancing/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/rebalancing/Rebalancing restores your original split. You sell some of what has risen and buy some of what has fallen.Stage 5https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/volatility/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/volatility/Volatility measures how much an investment swings. It's a useful but incomplete measure of risk, because it treats swings up and down the same.Stage 5https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/options-basics/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/options-basics/An option is the right to buy or sell something at a fixed price. Whoever buys it pays a premium for it. Whoever sells it takes on an obligation.Stage 5https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/options-hedging/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/options-hedging/Hedging with options is insurance you pay a premium for. It lowers your expected return and limits losses in exchange.Stage 5https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/futures/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/futures/A future is a binding agreement to buy or sell something at a later date at a fixed price. Unlike with an option, both sides are obliged.Stage 5https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/short-selling/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/short-selling/In short selling you borrow shares, sell them and hopefully buy them back cheaper later. Your possible gain is limited, your possible loss isn't.Stage 5https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/market-microstructure/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/market-microstructure/Market microstructure describes how a price arises from individual orders. It explains why the displayed price and the price you finally pay can differ.Stage 5https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/defining-a-strategy/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/defining-a-strategy/A strategy only counts as one if a stranger could carry it out without a single question. Everything else is a collection of good intentions.Stage 5https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/backtesting/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/backtesting/In backtesting you apply rules to old price data and see what would have come out. The test is only as good as the care you take to avoid the typical mistakes.Stage 5https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/overfitting/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/overfitting/Look long enough and you'll find patterns in any data set that are pure chance. The more variants you try, the surer you find one that shines in hindsight.Stage 5https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/automated-trading/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/automated-trading/A program makes no mistakes out of emotion, only technical ones. It helps you stay disciplined, but it doesn't replace a strategy that actually works.Stage 5https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/defi/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/defi/DeFi offers financial services through programs on a blockchain. Advertised returns either have a source you can name or come from later participants' money.Stage 5https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/impermanent-loss/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/impermanent-loss/If you supply a liquidity pool with coins, you end up with less of whatever rose. The gap to simply holding grows as prices drift apart and is often lasting.Stage 5https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/trading-plan/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/trading-plan/At the end of this course there's a document: your own plan. It records what you do, what you keep your hands off and what you stick to in bad times.Stage 5https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/market-participants/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/lesson/market-participants/The market isn't a single opponent. Many different participants trade there, with quite different goals, sums and time frames.Stage 4https://zerotoinvest.com/en/case-studies/wirecard/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/case-studies/wirecard/In 2020 a payments company listed in Germany's DAX index collapsed after about 1.9 billion euros in trust accounts couldn't be found.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/case-studies/ftx/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/case-studies/ftx/One of the world's largest crypto exchanges collapsed within days in November 2022. Customer funds hadn't been held separately. Withdrawals were frozen.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/case-studies/terra-luna/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/case-studies/terra-luna/In May 2022 a stablecoin that was supposed to work without real reserves lost its peg to the dollar within a few days.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/case-studies/gamestop/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/case-studies/gamestop/In early 2021 the shares of a video game chain rose many times over within a few weeks.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/case-studies/lehman/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/case-studies/lehman/In September 2008 a big American investment bank went bust and triggered the worst financial crisis in decades.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/case-studies/enron/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/case-studies/enron/An American energy group collapsed in 2001 after hiding debt in outsourced companies for years. The case led to major reforms in corporate accounting.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/fraud-protection/ponzi-scheme/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/fraud-protection/ponzi-scheme/In a Ponzi scheme the first investors get their returns from the money of later ones. That works as long as more money comes in than goes out.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/fraud-protection/pump-and-dump/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/fraud-protection/pump-and-dump/A group buys a thinly traded asset, generates attention, and sells to the buyers it attracted. The losses fall exclusively on whoever came last.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/fraud-protection/rug-pull/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/fraud-protection/rug-pull/A crypto project's creators withdraw the raised capital and disappear. The warning signs are publicly visible before buying, if you know what to look for.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/fraud-protection/fake-gurus/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/fraud-protection/fake-gurus/Anyone who could reliably make money trading would have no economic reason to sell courses or signals. That one consideration exposes most of this market.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/fraud-protection/check-the-provider/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/fraud-protection/check-the-provider/Four checks in a fixed order, done in a few minutes, that rule out the large majority of disreputable offers.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/fraud-protection/after-a-loss/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/fraud-protection/after-a-loss/The most important steps in the first days: pay nothing further, document everything, contact your bank and the police, ignore supposed recovery offers.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/fraud-protection/phishing-and-fake-shops/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/fraud-protection/phishing-and-fake-shops/How to spot phishing messages and fake online shops, and which steps help after a click, entering data or making a payment. Sources are mostly German.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/everyday-money/saving-in-everyday-life/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/everyday-money/saving-in-everyday-life/Where most of your everyday money goes and which savings levers are documented: housing, car, contracts, insurance, food and bank account. With a calculator.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/market-history/tulip-mania/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/market-history/tulip-mania/In 17th century Holland, prices for rare tulip bulbs reached absurd heights at times and collapsed suddenly in February 1637.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/market-history/1929/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/market-history/1929/After years of rising prices and more and more buying on credit, the American stock market crashed in October 1929.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/market-history/dotcom/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/market-history/dotcom/In the late 1990s internet stocks soared. The bubble burst in March 2000, the Nasdaq lost around eighty percent by October 2002 and recovered only in 2015.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/market-history/why-bubbles-look-the-same/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/market-history/why-bubbles-look-the-same/Bubbles differ in what they're about and resemble each other in how they unfold. Five phases have repeated for centuries.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/hype-check/ai-trading-bots/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/hype-check/ai-trading-bots/Machine learning is used in professional trading. The bots sold to private investors usually have little to do with it and fail on the same basic problems.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/hype-check/meme-coins/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/hype-check/meme-coins/Meme coins explicitly have no use and earn nothing. Their price depends solely on attention. That makes them a bet against other buyers, not an investment.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/hype-check/copy-trading/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/hype-check/copy-trading/With copy trading you automatically take over other users' trades.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/hype-check/nfts/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/hype-check/nfts/An NFT is an entry on a blockchain that points to something.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/reality-check/active-funds/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/reality-check/active-funds/Over ten years, the large majority of actively managed funds do worse than their benchmark index.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/reality-check/cfd-loss-rates/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/reality-check/cfd-loss-rates/ESMA found that 74 to 89 percent of retail CFD accounts lost money. Where the figure comes from, what followed and why it is more of a floor.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/reality-check/declines-and-recovery/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/reality-check/declines-and-recovery/Declines of ten percent happen roughly once a year on average, declines of more than forty percent several times a century.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/reality-check/day-trading-success-rate/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/reality-check/day-trading-success-rate/The largest study of day traders there is analyzed fifteen years of complete stock exchange data from Taiwan.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/taxes/germany/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/taxes/germany/25 percent flat tax plus solidarity surcharge, a €1,000 allowance, 30 percent exemption for equity funds and the advance lump sum for accumulating funds.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/taxes/austria/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/taxes/austria/27.5 percent capital gains tax from the first euro, no allowance, no holding-period exemption.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/taxes/switzerland/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/taxes/switzerland/Private capital gains are tax-free. Dividends get taxed as income and the portfolio as wealth. Anyone classified as trading as a business loses the exemption.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/taxes/belgium/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/taxes/belgium/Since 2026, a 10 percent capital gains tax applies to realized gains above an allowance of €10,000 per person per year.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/taxes/france/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/taxes/france/The flat tax (PFU) covers capital gains, dividends, and interest at a flat 31.4 percent, slightly raised since early 2026.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/taxes/italy/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/taxes/italy/Italy taxes gains on stocks, ETFs and funds at 26 percent from the first euro, with no allowance. Crypto: 33 percent since 2026. IVAFE explained.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/taxes/spain/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/taxes/spain/Capital gains, dividends, and interest fall into the progressive savings base at rates of 19 to 30 percent.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/taxes/netherlands/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/taxes/netherlands/The Netherlands taxes an assumed return on your entire wealth above an allowance. What you earned and whether you sold makes no difference.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/templates/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/templates/Six fillable PDF templates: budget check, debt and emergency fund, written plan, trading journal, broker checklist and portfolio overview.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/strategies/strategy-types-overview/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/strategies/strategy-types-overview/An overview of common strategy families: momentum, mean reversion, value screening, pairs trading, and automated bots. Education, not a guide to trade on.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/strategies/momentum-trend-following/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/strategies/momentum-trend-following/Securities that did well recently did better than others on average over the following months too.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/strategies/mean-reversion/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/strategies/mean-reversion/Momentum bets that a move will continue. Mean reversion bets that it will reverse: what was extremely strong or weak recently tends to return to its average.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/strategies/value-investing-strategy/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/strategies/value-investing-strategy/Stocks that were cheap relative to their book value did better in the past than expensive ones.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/strategies/pairs-trading/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/strategies/pairs-trading/You trade two securities that normally move similarly as soon as they drift apart, hoping the gap will close again. That was well documented for a long time.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/strategies/grid-trading-bots/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/strategies/grid-trading-bots/A grid bot lays a ladder of buy and sell orders over a price range and earns from every up and down.https://zerotoinvest.com/en/market-crash/https://zerotoinvest.com/en/market-crash/A short bit of orientation for the moment when everything is red. No selling, no forecasting, just the points that actually matter right now.