Risk disclaimer

Education only

Tips for Stock Traders publishes general educational material about how stock trading works. Nothing on the site is a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security, and nothing on it takes account of your finances, objectives or tolerance for risk. The site and its reviewers are not registered investment advisers, broker-dealers, tax advisers or lawyers, and no page creates an advisory relationship with anyone.

Trading carries real risk

You can lose money trading stocks, quickly and in amounts larger than you planned. Stops can fill well past their price, stocks can gap or halt, and margin and short selling can create losses larger than the money in your account. The hypothetical examples on this site are illustrations of arithmetic: they are not results anyone achieved and they say nothing about what a trade will do.

Rules change and brokers differ

Pages describe US rules set by the SEC, FINRA and the IRS as the site understands them at the time of writing, and they name the body that sets each rule so you can check it. Rules are amended, and brokers often apply stricter versions of them or handle orders in their own way. Before relying on anything here, confirm it with your broker, the rule itself, or a qualified professional.

Tax

Tax pages explain how rules work in general. Your own tax position depends on facts the site cannot know, so use a tax professional and the IRS publications named on each page for decisions.

Tools

The worksheets do arithmetic on the numbers you enter. They are only as good as those inputs, and they do not know your broker's rules, fees or execution.

Accuracy

Pages are reviewed before publication and corrected when errors are found, but the site cannot promise that every page is complete, current or free of mistakes. Report anything wrong through the contact page. Use of the site is also governed by the terms of use.