• Investing requires a substantial learning curve.stock market analysis screenshot image by .shock from Fotolia.com
  
  Stock market investing is a complicated field. Successful traders often require years to perfect their craft. Despite the challenges, many people do invest in the stock market. Your chances of success are greater if you take the time to learn the basics of investing. There are free educational tools available to streamline the learning curve. Although no educational tool is as effective as experience gained over time, they nonetheless help eliminate much of the confusion for a novice.
  
  

StockCharts.com ChartSchool

• StockCharts.com is an advanced online resource for stock market charting. The website provides complex tools for analyzing stock charts. But beginning investors may not understand how to properly read and scrutinize a chart. The ChartSchool is an educational tool that walks you through the methods of "technical analysis," a broad field of stock market study. The ChartSchool dives into all the popular techniques for analyzing charts. The resource discusses moving averages and technical indicators. The topics of "support" and "resistance" get a thorough examination, and you also learn to identify stock market trends. Novel methods such as Japanese "candlestick" charting and other systems are laid out for the novice to quickly grasp. If you have no current knowledge of technical analysis, this introduction will offer insight into the kind of the information a stock market chart displays.
  
  

Virtual Stock Exchange

• The Virtual Stock Exchange, an offering by the Wall Street Journal Digital Network, is a tool for experiencing the ups and downs of the stock market without actually investing any real money. When you sign up for this free service, you get an account similar to that of an online brokerage service. It is "funded" with virtual capital. You can buy and sell stocks and watch how your portfolio reacts to your choices. As there is no substitute for real trading, this educational tool offers the benefits of simulated investing experience, without the potential financial risk of losing actual money during your learning period.
  
  

Options Industry Council

• The Options Industry Council (OIC) is a comprehensive online resource for learning about stock options, a popular form of stock market investing. Options are flexible trading vehicles that trade on the open markets just like stock, but they offer many advantages. Stock options allow you to profit from a stock's decline, and they also offer a type of "insurance" to protect an existing portfolio. The OIC provides in-depth online classes that individuals may study at your own pace. Additionally, there are Webcasts and virtual trading accounts that offer further ways to expand your knowledge of stock options.