The NCM Trading Academy is a free knowledge base built by our research team for clients and prospective clients. It is designed to take you from your first question — what actually is a CFD? — all the way to building a written trading plan with sound risk management.
We focus on what works in practice: clear definitions, real examples and the uncomfortable truths most marketing material skips. No paid "signals", no black-box indicators, no get-rich-quick framing — just the fundamentals you need to make informed decisions with your own capital.
Featured Courses
Two complete guides written by our education team — start here.
What is Forex Trading?
A complete introduction to the foreign exchange market — how it works, the major currency pairs, market sessions and how pips, lots and leverage are calculated.
Read the guideHow to Trade — Step-by-Step Beginner's Guide
A practical walkthrough of opening your first position, choosing order types, sizing your trades, setting stop-losses and avoiding common psychological traps.
Read the guideLearning Tracks
The academy is organised into four progressive tracks. You can work through them in order, or jump straight to the topic you need.
Foundations
Start here if you are new to trading. Understand markets, instruments, leverage and the mechanics of placing an order.
- What is Forex
- What are CFDs
- Order types explained
- Leverage & margin basics
Risk Management
The single biggest difference between traders who survive and those who do not. Learn how to size positions, set stops and protect capital.
- Position sizing
- Stop-loss & take-profit
- Risk-reward ratios
- Drawdown control
Markets & Analysis
Read price action, follow the economic calendar and learn to combine technical and fundamental analysis into a coherent view.
- Technical analysis
- Fundamental analysis
- Reading the news
- Charting tools
Strategy & Psychology
Turn knowledge into a repeatable process. Build a written plan, journal your trades and develop the discipline to follow your own rules.
- Building a trading plan
- Journaling
- Common biases
- Trade reviews
New lessons are added regularly. Logged-in clients receive an email summary of new content each month.
Who is the academy for?
The Trading Academy is open to anyone — no NCM account is required to read the material.
Complete beginners
Never placed a trade before? Start with Foundations — no prior knowledge required.
Self-taught traders
Filling in the gaps from YouTube and forums. Build a structured mental model.
Active retail traders
Sharpen risk-management and refine an existing strategy with structured content.
Returning traders
Coming back after a break? Refresh on current platform features and market structure.
Theory is not enough — practice on a demo
Every lesson in the academy is best applied immediately on a live chart. NCM provides a free demo account funded with virtual capital, using the same real-time market data and the same execution engine as the live platform.
Use the demo to test order types, build muscle memory on the platform, validate a strategy across different market conditions, and find out how you react to drawdown before any real money is at stake.
A note on risk
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. The educational material in the Trading Academy is general in nature and does not constitute personalised investment advice. Past performance — including any examples used in the academy — is not indicative of future results.
Always trade with capital you can afford to lose, never risk more than you have planned for on a single trade, and consider seeking independent financial advice if you are unsure whether trading is appropriate for your circumstances.