Online education platform IM Academy recently announced the launch of its newest financial education package: the Stocks and Futures (SFX) Academy. SFX features educational resources and training from Carolyn Boroden, an experienced analyst known for her expertise in conducting time and price analysis by applying Fibonacci ratios to market charts.

Students at SFX Academy learn how to analyze the time axis of charts as the market moves and identify potential pivot points across different time frames. While IM Academy's Time-Based Exchange (TBX) Academy provides an overview of this strategy and its applications for intraday exchanges known as scalping, SFX focuses on utilizing time-based analysis in the stocks and futures market, with special attention paid to how Fibonacci ratios can be used to analyze and forecast market shifts. IM Academy's timing of launching the brand-new SFX Academy is perfect. The market has been topsy-turvy, with Americans often waking up to tumbling Futures amid global economic uncertainty and the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates for the third time in 2022 toward September's end.

Studying the Basics of Stocks and Futures

IM Academy designed SFX to introduce students to the stocks and futures markets through a scaffolded approach that builds on basic concepts and works towards advanced time-based strategies.

The initial step in this process is to understand what kind of assets are exchanged in these markets. Students learn that stocks enable market participants to exchange shares of public companies, while futures allow market participants to secure financial contracts that require a future exchange of an asset at a set time and price.

After a brief introduction and overview of IM Academy's online resources, students begin SFX with a set of 100-level courses that covers the basics in thorough detail, including discussions on the nature of stocks and futures, order types, risk management, and the market participants involved in stocks and futures markets.

An important concept introduced at this 100-level stage is the candlestick pattern. In market analysis, candlesticks refer to color-coded bars used to identify high and low points across various time frames of market activity. Analysts study patterns of these bars arrayed across a chart to get a sense of market momentum and direction, often at smaller, intraday time frames of activity, with the goal of identifying optimal entry and exit points for market engagement. Educating students on the recognition of patterns through chart analysis is a central component of IM Academy's approach to studying markets, and candlesticks are often used in this process of pattern analysis.

Studying Fibonacci Strategies at IM Academy

After the 100-level courses, IM Academy students at SFX Academy progress to required 200-level courses covering more advanced concepts that are fundamental to Boroden's approach to stocks and futures. This includes further in-depth study of candlesticks, continuation and reversal patterns, divergence and convergence, and moving averages. Students also learn about charting software used to analyze markets. The 200-level courses are designed to build on the basic concepts from the previous level to educate students about how trends and patterns are recognized in the stock and futures markets. 

The 300-level courses shift the focus to Fibonacci patterns and strategies. First, students learn about Fibonacci ratios, which are derived from an infinite series of numbers known as the Fibonacci sequence, in which each number is the sum of the two numbers that preceded it, and each number is approximately 1.618 times larger than its predecessor. This ratio is known as the "golden ratio." It's often associated with balance and can be used to describe relations throughout nature and art, from the movement of planets to the dimensions of the Mona Lisa.

In terms of financial markets, analysts utilize the golden ratio and other ratios derived from the Fibonacci sequence to assess when markets will retrace a pattern of rising or falling to return to a more balanced condition. This approach, known as Fibonacci retracement, is used to study the probability of when a market will reach highs and lows across shorter time intervals and time entry and exit points.

At SFX, IM Academy students study how market participants approach these patterns, drawing on videos and readings from educators and analysts such as Boroden. Known as the "Fibonacci Queen," Boroden is a frequent guest at conferences and on television shows speaking on topics related to chart analysis, and is the author of Fibonacci Trading: How to Master the Time and Price Advantage. Boroden brings over 40 years of experience to IM Academy, building lessons within the SFX Academy on topics such as Fibonacci retracement, Fibonacci price clusters, two-step patterns, and countertrends.

These lessons are primarily delivered through explanatory videos that IM Academy students who sign up for SFX can access at their convenience using the Academy's online portal. In addition to these videos, students can access IM Academy's IMpulse scanner, which uses proprietary technology to assess and provide visualizations of market momentum and direction. For students seeking live mentorship opportunities, IM Academy offers GoLive sessions, live online discussions with IM Academy educators working in the SFX Academy.

Note: IM Academy is an educational forum for analyzing, learning, and discussing general and generic information related to markets and strategies. No investment advice is provided to Academy customers.