When word gets around that you've started trading the stock market, you'll learn that a lot of people are "experts" in the field of picking profitable stocks. Actually, they're never put money on any of the stocks they picked, but they "knew" the stock was going to go up and should have a made a million dollars. You'll be exposed to experts like this when you are around family members during the holiday, or around co-workers during an office party, or well-meaning friends you know at church. Just remember one rule: Don't listen to them.

Once you've attended a BetterTrades workshop, you will be trained to make the proper decision who which stocks to buy and sell. Better Trades teaches a variety of stock market strategies that can work in a bull market, when stocks are going up, or in bear markets, when stocks are going down. BetterTrades knows you'll need to know bear strategies just as much as you'll need to understand the bullish strategies. Both are necessary if you're planning to trade the stock market, as conditions will be constantly changing.

So if you can't listen to your Uncle Fred at the annual family reunion – he's the guy with the mustache who would have made a killing in Home Depot if he'd had some money – who can you take advice from? Better Trades offers the sort of thorough stock market education that will enable any student to take advice from the one person who is most interested in their well-being: themselves. BetterTrades founder Freddie Rick likes to say, "No one is more in your money than you are!"

Many people who have not been trained by Better Trades falsely believe that the only way to make money is when the stock market goes up. Don't listen to them! The truth is that money can actually be made faster when the stock market goes down, when fear seizes those involved in the market. BetterTrades teaches bear strategies that enable students to capitalize on falling stock prices.

There are many strategies in general that can be useful during a bear market. Among those taught by Better Trades are:

• Buying puts: Put options permit the purchaser to take a profit when the price of a stock goes down. When the price of the underlying asset goes down, so does the price of the option.
• Shorting stock: In this bearish strategy, a trader will actually sell stock they don't even own, then later buy stock at the market price to replace what they had previous sold.
• Bear call spreads: In this strategy, a trader sells an out-of-the-money call, and then buys a call at a higher strike price. If the stock closes at or below the strike price you sold, you get the maximum profit. This strategy has a limited maximum gain, but also has a cap on the potential loss.

BetterTrades can help you learn the strategies that can be used to take the most profit, regardless of which way the market turns, and regardless of the well-meaning tips you receive from friends, relatives and neighbors.