Ten short lessons on returns, risk and rules — level-headed, with the numbers, and things to play with.

Most of what goes wrong in trading goes wrong before the first order: people judge strategies by the wrong number, size them by hope, and leave by feel. Each lesson here takes one of those habits, shows the arithmetic behind it, gives you something to try, and says what it looks like on TradeMath. No jargon that isn't defined, no promises, and every replayed number comes with the year it lost.

lesson 1 · 5 minTwo 12% strategiesSame return. You would have kept one and quit the other.lesson 2 · 5 minVolatility is a taxThe same average return, taxed by the size of the swing.lesson 3 · 5 minHow long underwaterPick a month to buy the index. See when you were whole again.lesson 4 · 5 minHit rate is overratedA strategy that is wrong 60% of the time can beat one that is right 70%.

lesson 5What a good strategy feels likeTwenty losing days in a row inside a strategy that works.

lesson 6Who earned it: alpha and betaHow much of that return was the stock's, and how much was the tide.

lesson 7 · 5 minSize is the dialThe same rules at half size and at double size are three different products.

lesson 8Why exits are rulesStop-losses tested worse than no rule. What tested better.

lesson 9Case study: summer 2026The index rose. The leaders were sold. What the rules saw.

lesson 10Overriding the rulesWhat discretion costs, measured — and six questions for any track record.

The Workshop is education, not advice. Replayed numbers are averages over many trades, after costs unless stated, and are not forecasts; the live record is on the engine page. Open the desk Manual Engine Changelog

Trading, without the brochure