Are you ready to get started in trading?

If you’ve ever thought about dipping your toes into trading the markets but felt overwhelmed by where to start, we’re here to help. With so many markets, strategies, and opinions out there, it’s easy to feel stuck before you even place your first trade.

The good news? Trading doesn’t have to be complicated if you understand the principles. With the right guidance, you can learn step-by-step, avoid costly mistakes, and build a skill that could serve you for life. In this post, I’ll walk you through how to get started in trading – and point you towards the best resources to support you in your journey.

Why Start Trading?

Trading offers more than just the possibility of extra income. It’s about flexibility, freedom, and creating opportunities that fit around your lifestyle. Whether you want to trade as a side hustle or you’re dreaming of something bigger, the first step is learning the basics.

Step 1: Learn the Foundations

Every successful trader starts by understanding the basics. Here’s what you’ll need to understand:

What trading is: Buying and selling markets like stocks, commodities, currencies, cryptocurrencies or indices to make a profit.
The difference between trading and investing:
- Trading is short-term, focused on capturing price movements.
- Investing is long-term, focused on growth and dividends.
Key concepts to know:
- Trend – in what direction is the market moving? (up, down or sideways)
- Risk management (controlling potential losses)
- Reward-to-risk ratios – your key to success (balancing what you stand to gain vs. lose)

Think of this stage as building the foundation of your trading house. Without it, everything else is shaky.

Step 2: Choose Your Market

One of the biggest mistakes new traders make is trying to trade too many markets at once. The truth is, you’ll learn faster and make better decisions if you focus on just one or two.

Stocks: Often new traders start with stocks as they find them familiar and easily accessible. Tradeable stocks include many well known names such as ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, Apple, Rio Tinto and BHP just to name a few of the thousands of stocks you can trade.
Indices: Examples include the Standard and Poor’s 500, or simply known as the S&P 500, which is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 leading companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. Similarly, the SPI 200, more commonly knowns as the S&P/ASX 200, is the benchmark equity index for the Australian share market, representing the performance of the 200 largest companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
Commodities: These are generally raw materials or primary products, many of which will be instantly familiar to you. Gold, Crude Oil, Coffee, Sugar, Wheat, Corn and Silver just to name a few. These are generally traded through the Futures Market or as CFDs.
Currencies also known as Forex: This is where you trade the incremental moves in a currency, paired against another. Popular markets include Australian Dollar v The US Dollar, the US Dollar v the Japanese Yen or the British Pound v the US Dollar. The currency market is highly liquid and trades almost 24 hours a day making it an attractive market to trade.

At Safety in the Market, we recommend picking a market that interests you, then really getting to know its “personality” before branching out.

Step 3: Find a Time Tested Strategy

Guessing and hot tips are not a trading strategy. If you want consistency, you need a method that helps you identify opportunities and manage your risks.

This is exactly what Safety in the Market has been teaching traders for decades.

Our Active Trader Program is designed for beginners who want a step-by-step roadmap.
You’ll learn how to:
- Identify likely turning points in the market.
- Spot high-probability setups.
- Create a trading plan that tells you when to trade, when not to trade, and how much to risk.

The Active Trader Program takes the guesswork out of trading – and that’s what every beginner needs. If you’d like to see some of the recent trades we’ve been working through with our coaching students, visit our YouTube Channel Here.

Step 4: Practice Without Pressure

Before risking real money, it’s smart to practice. A great way to do this is with a demo account. Most brokers will offer you the chance to trial their platform using a paper trading account. It’s your chance to dip your foot in the water, without risking any money. use your demo account to:

Learn how to actually place a trade
Try different trading strategies
Learn about the tools available in your brokers platform
Get familiar with your market and how it moves, without risking real money.

This is where you build confidence in your skills before stepping into the real market and paper trading is a great place to start. Take some time to practice your trading techniques before you commit real money.

Step 5: Manage Your Risk

Risk management is a crucial part of your trading process. Learning how to calculate your reward to risk ratio on a trade will also help you decide which trades to take, and which ones to let pass you by. When you consider this aspect of your trading we’d suggest you:

Follow the golden rule: never risk more than 5% of your trading account on a single trade. In fact, starting out, we’d suggest you aim to keep you risk at approximately 2%, it’s not just about the money, but it’s the lessons you’ll learn when you’re starting out, as it can be a steep learning curve and you want to be safe in the market.
Keep a trading journal to record what worked, what didn’t, and how you felt during each trade.
Having a trading plan. This is your ‘play sheet’ outlining how you plan to execute the trade. If you don’t have a trading plan then be sure to request our free Trading Plan Tune Up short course, in which we go into detail and discuss exactly what a trading plan is, why you need one in your trading and the specifics of what it needs to include – things like how to calculate your entry and exit points and risk management. We’ll help you to put your own together, giving you a copy of the exact Trading Plan our students use. Request your copy of our Trading Plan Tune Up course today.

Start slow, follow your rules and be clear on your reward to risk ratio on each trade.

Step 6: Use Free Resources

Getting started doesn’t mean you have to spend a fortune upfront.

On the Safety in the Market website, you’ll find free resources designed to help beginners just like you. These include articles and videos explaining the basics, through to free courses including:

7 Steps to Investing with a Plan – tailored for both beginners and seasoned traders, this course explores the concept of trading with a plan, offering clear, actionable steps to craft your own strategy for trading.
Trading Kickstart – this seven part email series is perfect for the student new to trading, exploring the basics including market jargon and how to choose a broker through to choosing your market and time to trade.
Trading Plan Tune Up – It’s time to get serious about your trading strategy! In our Trading Plan Tune Up you’ll explore the intricacies of crafting a robust trading plan and get a copy of the plan our students use.
Introduction to FX Trading – This 7 part series offers an in depth look at the key elements you need to understand before trading in the Forex market

Exploring the above free course is the perfect way to start learning without pressure.

Step 6: Your Next Step to Get Started in Trading – Take Action

The hardest part of trading is often just getting started. Waiting for the “perfect time” usually leads to never starting at all.

Remember:

Progress comes from learning by doing.
Start small, build gradually, and focus on consistency.
As we like to say: Before you earn, you’ve got to learn.

There is a plethora of free information out there, so try not to get overwhelmed by it all as it often leads to analysis paralysis. Just take your time with it all – learning to trade, just like learning any new skill, is a marathon, not a sprint. You can try and piece together a trading strategy yourself, but this can take a lot of trial and error.

If you want to get started in trading the smart way and save yourself a heap of time and costly mistakes, our Active Trader Program is a great place to start. In the program we teach you everything you need to know to make 10 to 1 Reward to Risk Returns in your trading – if you do the work.

What our students love most about the Active Trader Program is that they are never alone – they love the support they receive from our trading community, where they can ask questions, share their challenges and receive guidance from our Trading Tutors and support from our team every step of the way.

They also love our coaching, which is a great way to keep them on track with their studies and they can see everything they learn in action in live markets as the market setups unfold.

We’ve been training traders of all ages, backgrounds and experience levels from all over the world, for more than 35 years.

If you would like to see some of our trading strategies in action, check out our Trading Examples on YouTube.

If you’d like to find out more about the Active Trader Program and how we can help you get started in trading the right way, contact us today.

Final Thoughts

Trading is one of the most rewarding skills you can learn, but only if you start with the right foundation.

👉 Begin with the free resources on the Safety in the Market website.
👉 When you’re ready to take the next step, enrol in the Active Trader Program – your complete course in price-based trading which will teach you how to trade with confidence and discipline.

Your trading journey doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With the right support and a step-by-step plan, you’ll be on your way to building a skill that could change your financial future.

How to Get Started in Trading – A Beginners Roadmap