Where to start

Everyone finishes in the same place, which is the capstone campaign, and everyone passes through School II in full, because the risk contract is the one part of this curriculum with no shortcut. What differs is where you start and what you're allowed to fast-read.

The Beginner — "I've never bought a stock"

Schools I through IX, in order. The sequence was designed for you, including its one deliberate oddity: risk (School II) comes before charts (School III), so that if you open a broker account mid-curriculum, which most people do, you already carry the ritual. Schools I–II will feel easy and they are easy; the compounding starts at III. Arena challenges unlock per school, and your first paper trade is available the day you finish II, gated by the ritual like every trade after it.

The Burned — "I've traded, and it went badly"

Start at School II, then School VII, then return to III and continue in order. The reasoning is diagnostic. Nearly every account that ends badly ends through one of the two doors those schools guard, unmanaged loss size and unmanaged behaviour, and you'll recognize your own history in both, which is worth more than any new setup. Skim School I as reference when terms wobble (the glossary maps every term to its course). One request: run the Arena's ritual gates from day one even though paper feels beneath you. The habits that burned you got there through practice, and the replacements need the same.

The Investor — "I hold index funds and know the vocabulary"

Fast-read School I (course 9, costs, deserves a full stop — trading frequency will be new arithmetic), then full School II without shortcuts: R, expectancy and the ritual are almost certainly new even if every term is familiar. From III onward you're on the Beginner's road. One standing caution for this path. Investing instincts like buying the dip, averaging down and treating cheapness as a virtue are exactly the instincts Schools III and IV retrain, and knowing markets makes those instincts confident ones. The stage framework and the laggard trap are where your homework is.

Whichever path: one school at a time, Arena challenges before moving on, and the capstone at the end. The curriculum reads in a few weeks. The habits take the months the Arena is built to hold you through.