Learn the craft.
Short, practical guides on getting more out of your portfolio — and out of Tradune.
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Margin call price: how maintenance margin works, with an example
How equity, the loan and maintenance margin set a long position’s margin call price, with a worked example and the FINRA 25% floor. Broker rules differ.
Read · 5 min · Oct 12, 2026Portfolio rebalancing: when to act, what to trade, and a worked example
Learn how target weights and drift bands work, compare a full rebalance with a buy-only plan, and follow a $30,000 portfolio example through the math.
Read · 6 min · Oct 12, 2026Stock splits explained: share count, price, cost basis and fractional shares
A forward or reverse split changes share count and per-share figures, not company value by itself. A 4-for-1 example and what happens to cost basis.
Read · 5 min · Oct 12, 2026The 4% rule and safe withdrawal rates: what the calculator can—and can’t—tell you
How an inflation-adjusted 4% withdrawal works, a $500,000 example, and why a smooth-return calculator cannot establish a safe retirement rate.
Read · 6 min · Oct 12, 2026What an earnings 'beat' actually measures
FactSet puts the 5-year S&P 500 EPS beat rate at 78%, consensus varies by vendor, and companies define adjusted EPS. What a beat really tells you.
Read · 10 min · Aug 1, 2026Position sizing: turning conviction into a number
Which stock to buy gets all the attention. How much to buy quietly decides more of your outcome — and it’s the part most people never actually calculate.
Read · 6 min · Jul 19, 2026What backtesting can (and can’t) tell you
A backtest turns ‘this strategy should work’ into a chart. That’s useful and quietly dangerous. How to read one without fooling yourself.
Read · 7 min · Jul 17, 2026Cost basis explained: FIFO vs LIFO vs average
FIFO, LIFO and average cost can turn one sale into three different gains. What each method does, and which ones IRS rules allow for stocks and funds.
Read · 7 min · Jul 15, 2026Stress testing: how your portfolio behaves in a crisis
How stress tests work — historical crisis replays and beta-scaled market-drop shocks — and why one volatility number hides the tail risk of a crisis.
Read · 7 min · Jul 14, 2026What 13F filings reveal — and quietly hide
13F filings show you what the big funds own — but a 45-day-delayed, long-only snapshot hides far more strategy than it reveals.
Read · 7 min · Jul 12, 2026The efficient frontier, without the matrix algebra
Mean-variance optimization promises the best return for every level of risk — here’s what it actually does, and why the map lies more than you think.
Read · 8 min · Jul 10, 2026Are you secretly running a momentum fund?
Your portfolio has factor exposures whether you chose them or not — here’s how to see the bets hiding inside your holdings.
Read · 8 min · Jul 8, 2026Setting alerts that earn their keep (instead of numbing you)
Most people set alerts that fire constantly, learn to ignore them, and then miss the one that mattered. Here’s how to set fewer, better triggers.
Read · 6 min · Jun 24, 2026Building a stock screener that fits your thesis
Most screeners return 4 stocks or 400. How to build filters that surface ideas worth researching, starting from your thesis rather than a slider.
Read · 6 min · Jun 3, 2026Tax-loss harvesting, without the headache
How to turn a losing position into a real tax saving — the wash-sale rule that trips everyone up, and when harvesting is a waste of time.
Read · 7 min · May 13, 2026Insider cluster buying: signal, or just noise?
When several executives buy their own stock in the same window, it’s worth a look. Here’s how to read Form 4 clusters — and the ones that mean nothing.
Read · 7 min · Apr 8, 2026VaR, beta, and drawdown, explained without the jargon
Three risk numbers you’ll see on any decent portfolio tool — what each one really answers, and the trap hiding inside the most famous of them.
Read · 7 min · Mar 4, 2026What a portfolio health score actually tells you
A single number for portfolio 'health' sounds like marketing. Here’s what goes into one, where it’s genuinely useful, and where it quietly lies to you.
Read · 6 min · Feb 11, 2026