THE FIELD GUIDE
The companion to Season 1. Every wall, every worked number, and the checklist - on paper, in plain words.
Free forever. No course. No membership. No signup.
Print it. Keep it by your screen. It costs nothing because the teaching is the whole product.
Education only. This guide teaches how trading works; it is not financial advice, and it never tells anyone what to buy or sell.
Why this exists
Geraldo spent over a year trying to learn to trade. He believed shorting a stock worked with any amount of money - even $100. It does not. The real minimum is $2,000, and he learned that after he was already in. Following teachers online, he signed up for six brokers. Every door opened. Not one of them showed him how the trade he actually wanted worked.
His sentence for that year:
The teachers were not confused. Confusion was the business:
A viewer who does not understand keeps paying - for the course, the room, the next level. This guide exists so nobody has to pay for confusion again. Everything in it is free, and everything in it is shown, step by step, the way the episodes show it.
Each page is one episode's wall - the whole lesson on a single sheet, with the episode named at the top. Read it in order once. After that it is a reference: when you have a question, the page you need is the page named for it. Keep the checklist page - the second-to-last page of this guide - by your screen.
The five facts before your first short
A short sale means selling a stock you do not own, hoping to buy it back cheaper. Here is what the signup videos skip.
For years, pattern day traders in margin accounts had to keep $25,000. That rule was replaced on June 4, 2026 by intraday margin standards - but firms may phase the change in until October 20, 2027. Your broker may still run the old rule today. Check yours.
The six doors
One trader, one year, six signups. Every one of these doors was real. Not one opened onto the room where the trade he wanted - shorting a stock - actually lives.
| The door | The room it actually is | Why the trade said no |
|---|---|---|
| WEBULL | Individual cash | Cannot short |
| FOREX.COM | Currencies only | No stocks behind it |
| INTERACTIVE BROKERS | The pro desk | The gate is approvals |
| OANDA | Currencies too | No stocks behind it |
| TRADOVATE | Futures | A different building |
| APPLE STOCKS | Look-only | Not a broker - no door |
Six doors - not one was the room his trade lives in.
Apple Stocks deserves its line read twice: it is a quotes app that comes with the phone. You can look at prices in it all day. There is no account inside it and no trade has ever been placed from it. It is a window painted to look like a door - and a beginner cannot be blamed for knocking on it.
The lesson is not that any of these houses is bad. Doors are described here, houses are not bashed. The lesson is that nobody at any door said which room it opened onto - and a cash room, two currency rooms, an approvals office, a different building, and a window are five different answers to the same question.
The four corners
The whole season on one wall. Every account you will ever open is one of these four corners. Learn what each holds, what it can never do, and who guards it.
| The corner | What it holds | What it can never do | Who guards it |
|---|---|---|---|
| CASH | Your own money - stocks, funds, bought options, crypto outright | Short Borrow | SEC + FINRA, through your broker |
| MARGIN | Everything cash holds, plus borrowed money and short selling | Exist inside an IRA Promise the loan survives | SEC + FINRA, plus the lender itself |
| RETIREMENT | Buying and holding; bought options at many brokers | Borrow Short - tax law forbids both | The tax code itself |
| FUTURES | Contracts - promises, not shares | Lend you money - its "margin" is a deposit | CFTC + NFA - a different building |
Every app icon from the census is one of these corners wearing a logo. When an account says no, it is almost never personal: you were standing in a corner where that trade does not exist. The map does not change the corners. It stops you from knocking on the wrong one for a year.
The form, in four sentences
"The form" is two papers: the application that opens the account, and the application that asks for a permission - margin, options, shorting. A denial on the second paper feels personal. It is not. The doctrine:
Lying on the form. The whisper says inflate your experience and the machinery unlocks. What it really buys: tools you were never measured for, whose losses are not fenced - and answers on file, under your signature, that poison every honest form after them. A true answer compounds. A false one never does.
Trade the level you have like it matters - it is the only level that builds the next one.
A $2,000 account, honestly
What a small account can honestly do - one page of arithmetic, with the loss planned first.
A skilled beginner's good month, worked in full: 20 trades. 11 wins at one and a half times the risk (+$30 each). 9 losses at the risk itself (-$20 each).
That is a good month, from someone already skilled. Most beginners' first months are negative - the honest math expects that, and plans position sizes small enough to survive it.
On margin, the same $2,000 can hold $4,000 of stock overnight - half of it borrowed. Borrowed money charges rent every day, win or lose, and the borrowed half doubles every move in both directions.
The gates
Margin is a loan with rules written in advance. These are the rules - the gate, the floor, and the rent.
The rent - margin interest, small-account tiers:
| Broker | Approximate rate |
|---|---|
| Robinhood | about 5.25% |
| Typical big broker (at $50,000) | about 10% |
| Schwab / Fidelity (under $25,000) | 12.075% |
The rent in dollars: borrowing $50,000 at about 10% costs about $14 a day. Borrowing $2,000 at 10% costs about $0.55 a day - $16.44 a month, $200 a year. It is charged win or lose, and it never sleeps.
Fall below the floor and the broker issues a margin call: deposit more, or be sold out - at the broker's timing, not yours.
Read the chart, read the tape
Charts do not predict. They report - where trades happened, how many, and how hard each side had to push. Read them as history with honest labels, and they will never sell you a prophecy.
What actually moves prices
Five movers. Every one of them is orders - money that showed up and traded.
| The mover | What it actually is | The receipt it leaves |
|---|---|---|
| THE REPORT CARD | What the company earned - vs what was expected | The number beside the expectation |
| BIG MONEY | Funds trading in size - they cannot hide | Volume: hands on the tape |
| THE TIDE | The whole market, moving one way | The index line dragging the stock's line |
| THE PRICE OF MONEY | Interest rates, re-pricing everything at once | The whole market jumping on one headline |
| THE CROWD | Fear and greed, stampeding one way | Volume exploding at the extremes |
A guru's post. A candle pattern - a footprint, not the foot. Hope. None of them is an order. A price has never moved because somebody wished at it; a price moves when money shows up and trades.
So when a stock jumps, ask the episode's question: which of the five did it - and where is the receipt? If the only evidence is a screenshot and a claim, you are looking at the footprint and being sold the foot.
Options on one page
- One contract = 100 shares. Every options price is quoted per share, so multiply by 100 to get the real money.
- The premium is the price of the ticket. A premium of $2 means $200 real, paid once.
- A CALL is the right to BUY at the strike price, until the expiration date. A PUT is the right to SELL at the strike, until the date.
Worked, on a $50 stock with a $2 premium:
| Ticket | Breaks even at | The good day | The worst day |
|---|---|---|---|
| CALL | $52 | Stock at $60: +$800 | -$200 - the premium, not a cent more |
| PUT | $48 | Stock at $40: +$800 | -$200 - the premium, not a cent more |
The call is worth $0 only at $50 or below on its date. Between $50 and $52 the loss is partial - the ticket is worth something, just less than its $200. The put mirrors it on the way down.
The ladder: buying calls and puts is the lowest rung - a cash account can stand on it. Spreads are the middle. Selling options naked is the top rung: it needs margin, and it never exists inside an IRA.
Short vs put, the same 100 shares, $50 stock: the short holds $7,500 against the position, can make at most +$5,000, and can lose with no ceiling. The bought put pays $200 once, can make +$4,800, and its loss stops at -$200. Same bet on a fall. Two very different bills.
Futures on one page
- A future is a contract - a promise, not a share. Nothing is bought or borrowed; two sides agree on a price for a date.
- The big index contract (ES) pays $50 a point and, at an index of 7,500, controls $375,000 of stock value. The micro (MES) is exactly one tenth: $5 a point.
- Futures "margin" is not a loan. It is a performance bond - a good-faith deposit the exchange holds against the promise. No interest is charged, because nothing is lent.
- There is no FINRA $2,000 rule in this building. Futures answer to the CFTC and the NFA, and the deposit is set per contract by the exchange.
- Two-sided by design. There is no borrow and no locate: selling first is as ordinary as buying first.
Every day settles in cash. One micro contract, one $2,000 account, three nights:
| Night | The day | The account |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | +$100 | $2,100 |
| 2 | -$200 | $1,900 |
| 3 | -$250 | $1,650 |
The settlement does not stop at your deposit. On the micro, a run of -400 points is -$2,000 - the whole account - and past zero it keeps going, into a debt you owe. Small contract, real building.
Leverage, the umbrella
Leverage means controlling more than your own money buys. Four doors, four costumes - one machine. The multiplier is the position divided by your money in it.
| The door | Multiplier | What it costs | How it collects |
|---|---|---|---|
| THE MARGIN LOAN | 2x | Interest - rent on the cash (about $0.55 a day on $2,000 borrowed) | The call: deposit more, or be sold out |
| THE SHORT | 2x | A borrow fee and interest - rent on the shares | By recall - and the bill has no ceiling |
| THE BOUGHT OPTION | 25x | The premium, paid once - $200 | By the calendar: the ticket melts to its date. The loss can never pass $200 |
| THE FUTURE | A deposit steering $375,000 (the micro steers $37,500) | No rent - the deposit is yours | Every night, in cash - and it can bill past your deposit |
At 2x, a 10% move is 20% of your money - up or down. At 10x, a 10% move against you is 100%: everything, on a move stocks make all the time. Leverage never changes whether you are right. It only changes how much being wrong costs.
The $10,000 test
Every big-win claim gets the same test: work backward. To make $10,000 on a $50 stock, the move decides the shares - and the shares decide the money.
| The stock moves | Shares you must hold | Money in |
|---|---|---|
| +5% | 4,000 shares | $200,000 |
| +10% | 2,000 shares | $100,000 |
| +20% | 1,000 shares | $50,000 |
| +50% | 400 shares | $20,000 |
Run every claim through it in both directions: the same position, at the same size, loses the same $10,000 on the way down. Win and lose are always worked together.
A $10,000 day from a $2,000 account needs +500% - on the biggest position margin allows, a +250% move in the stock. That move does not exist on stocks. When a screenshot shows it anyway, leverage cropped out of the picture did it - see page 13.
Growing $2,000 into $12,000, at honest speeds:
| The pace | The time it takes |
|---|---|
| +$150 a month, flat (a good month, every month) | about 5.6 years |
| +5% a month, compounded | about 3.1 years |
| +3% a month, compounded | about 5.1 years |
Fees, honestly: exchange and regulatory fees run a few dollars on a six-figure sale - about $2.27 on a $110,000 sale - and scale with size. Small, real, and never the reason the math fails.
The honest numbers
These numbers are spoken as "about" on purpose. They are the shape the studies keep finding - not a promise that you will lose, and never a promise that you will win. Anyone who gives you an exact number here is selling you the other thing.
Which is why the season's verdict on trading itself is the plain one: it is skill and luck - not a get-rich thing. The skill can be learned, in the open, for free. The luck cannot be scheduled. A plan that needs luck on a deadline is not a plan.
Not to scare you off - to size you honestly. Trade money you can afford to learn with, at sizes whose worst day you have already agreed to, for the years it actually takes. That is the whole survival strategy, and it fits on this page.
Glossary, part one
- Margin.
- The account type that lets you borrow - cash from the broker, or shares. Shorting lives here; a cash account cannot short.
- Margin call.
- The broker's demand when your account falls below its floor: deposit more money, or the broker sells your position for you.
- Short selling.
- Selling a stock you do not own - borrowed from the broker - planning to buy it back cheaper. The profit has a ceiling; the loss has none.
- Borrow / locate.
- Before a short, the broker must locate shares someone will lend. The borrow can charge a fee and interest, and it can be recalled - ending your trade on the lender's schedule.
- Premium.
- The price of an options contract, quoted per share. A $2 premium on one contract is $200 real, because one contract covers 100 shares.
- Strike.
- The price written on an options contract - the price the call buyer may buy at, or the put buyer may sell at.
- Expiration.
- The date an options contract dies. Time melts an option's value a little every day until then.
- Contract (options).
- A ticket covering 100 shares that gives its buyer a right - to buy (a call) or to sell (a put) - at the strike, until expiration.
- Futures.
- Contracts that are promises, not shares - agreements about an index or a commodity at a set size - traded in a separate building under CFTC and NFA rules.
- Performance bond.
- The futures "margin": a good-faith deposit the exchange holds against your promise. It is not a loan, and no interest is charged on it.
Glossary, part two
- Settlement.
- The moment money actually moves. Futures settle in cash every night. Stocks settle the next business day - T+1.
- Bid / ask.
- The best price a waiting buyer offers (the bid) and the best price a waiting seller asks (the ask).
- Spread.
- The gap between the bid and the ask. Crossing it - buying at the ask instead of waiting - costs the spread, once.
- Print.
- A finished trade: a price and a size that actually changed hands. Of everything on the screen, the print is the only fact.
- Volume.
- How many shares changed hands in a stretch of time - the receipt that hands were really there.
- Squeeze.
- When shorts rush to buy back at once, often into rising prices, and their own buying pushes the price higher against the ones still in.
- Approval tier.
- The rung a broker approves you for: buying options at the lowest, spreads in the middle, selling naked plus full margin at the top. The rung is set by the record on your form.
- Suitability.
- The broker's duty to judge that a permission fits the person asking - their money, their experience, their purpose. The form is a measurement, not an exam.
- Denominator.
- The count underneath a claim. "Nine wins" means nothing until you know out of how many trades. Wins divided by all of them is the number that matters.
Every word in this glossary is defined the way the episodes define it - in plain words first, before the abstraction built on top of it. If a trading word ever arrives undefined, that is the teacher skipping a step. Ask for the step.
Keep the card
Print this page. Keep it by your screen. Run every line, in order, before any trade.
A trade that fails any line is not a trade yet.
What this channel will never sell
No course. No membership. No signals. No paid room.
The teaching is the product, and it is free - because the man who built this channel spent a year as the confused viewer who pays, and built the channel he needed instead. Every episode shows its work: the real rules, the real math, and the fleet's real paper ledgers, losses included.
Show, don't lead. Every "why" in the season is followed by the "how," in steps, on screen. This guide is the same promise on paper.
Trade With Receipts is education only. Nothing in the season or in this guide is financial advice, and nothing here tells you what to buy, sell, or hold.
Season 1 - the teaching order:
- The Five Facts You Need Before Your First Short
- Open the Account
- The Trade Types - The Map
- Read the Chart
- The $500-to-$10k Lie
- Day Trading with $2,000
- The Gates in Depth
- Order Book & Tape
- Options, From Zero
- Futures, From Zero
- Shorting vs Puts, Side by Side
- Leverage, the Umbrella
- What Actually Moves Prices
- Why Your Account Says No - The Census
- The Form
- The Four Corners
- The Denominator - the fleet's judgment, December 2026
- Follow the Politicians
- The Pre-Trade Checklist and the Honest Numbers