Establish your goals, budget, and time frame. How advanced do you want your knowledge of TradeStation to be? How much money and time you are willing to spend learning? Depending on how skilled you want to become and how skilled you already are with finance and computer programming, learning TradeStation could take anywhere from a week to six months and cost up to a few hundred dollars.
Visit TradeStation's website. It provides tutorial videos and a schedule of free online courses. The tutorials are five- to 10-minute self-paced videos, and about 60 tutorials are available. The online courses last from one to two and a half hours, and there are new courses posted all the time. They are available only to members of the site. Set aside five to 10 hours to view the tutorials, then browse the online course topics and register for courses that fit your needs and schedule.
Consider investing in other resources if you find that the tutorials and online classes do not teach you enough. Select a method that suits your goals, budget and time frame. Weigh the pros and cons of your options carefully. For example, a free guidebook is available online, but it may not be as easy for you to learn from written instructions as from a live seminar. A full-day seminar will cost about $100, and you will also have to pay for airfare and a hotel, but you will have the benefit of hands-on experience. TradeStation's website is a good place to begin your search for resources. It has a list of seminars, as well as a list of books on learning TradeStation, learning EasyLanguage and learning about the market.
Establish a schedule. If you choose to go to a seminar, book your hotel and flights early. If you choose to learn online or buy books, set up specific times devoted to learning. Remember, you probably won't learn it all in a day, and you may need more time if you aren't already familiar with finance or computers.
Practice. Make sure you have a thorough understanding of TradeStation and the market before you begin trading real money.