12 best free services and online courses to teach you how to invest

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Lessons for every taste for beginners and experienced stock market participants.

1. ABC of finance

• Level: beginners.
• Duration: 72 hours, 29 lectures.
• author: Tomsk State University of Control Systems and Radioelectronics (TUSUR).
• Platform: "Lectorium".

The course is dedicated to personal finance management. Classes are taught by Valeria Tsibulnikova, Associate Professor of the Department of Economics of TUSUR. Her experience in the field of exchange trading is 11 years.

The teacher talks about the difference between saving and investing, introduces the main instruments of the stock market and helps to choose an investment strategy.

The format of the classes is video lectures with test tasks. To get a personalized certificate of the "Lectorium" about passing the course, you need to pass the final test paper.

2. Stocks and bonds

• Level: beginners.
• Duration: 39 lessons of 5-15 minutes.
• Author, platform: non-profit educational organization Khan Academy.

This course is part of the Financial and Capital Markets section of the Khan Academy.

You will learn how the stock market works and how to evaluate a company in order to select reliable and profitable securities. Additionally, you can study the topic of mutual funds and ETFs - funds that are traded on the stock exchange and available to private investors.

For those wishing to trade on the derivatives market, there is a module about stock derivatives - financial contracts that oblige to make a deal with an asset at the declared value within a specified time frame. For example, when you need to sell an asset at the current price, but not today, but on a certain day, this is a futures transaction.

The training format is video tutorials. The unusual presentation gives the feeling of a real lecture: the presenter solves practical problems in front of the audience, and the board for calculations is very similar to the university one.

3. First steps on the exchange

• Level: beginners.
• Duration: five lessons, 5 hours.
• Author, platform: VTB Broker - Investor School.

This is an introductory course for those taking their first steps in the stock exchange. One lesson - one topic: principles of investing, choosing a broker, investment assets, IIS, portfolio strategies.

In addition to this course, there are others at the Investor School. For example, how to win back dividends correctly, how to find investment ideas or how to make money on gold.

Format - an electronic textbook with assignments after each topic.

4. Investor's way

• Level: beginners.
• Duration: three lectures, 2-3 hours each.
• Author, platform: School of the Moscow Exchange.

This course is conducted by experts from the Moscow Exchange. The training covers topics such as basic stock market instruments, choosing a broker and opening a brokerage account, IIS. Three recorded video lectures are available to students. Their only drawback is that it will not work to ask questions to the presenter. But sometimes the school also organizes live broadcasts of classes.

By the way, there are other courses on technical analysis and trading strategies on the educational platform of the Moscow Exchange.

5. Investments for beginners

• Level: beginners.
• Duration: 12 lectures, 20 minutes each.
• Author, platform: Finarium investment school.

You will learn how portfolio investing differs from a speculative approach, and learn how to analyze exchange-traded assets by profitability and risk.

The presenter will analyze in detail the common mistakes and instruments dangerous for beginners: Forex, binary options, etc. A separate lesson is devoted to investment advisors and the principles of their work.

The course leader is Sergey Kikevich, a financial advisor with over 10 years of experience.

6. And how to invest

• Level: beginners.
• Duration: nine lessons.
• Author, platform: "Tinkoff-magazine".

The course was created in the editorial office of "T-Zh" together with experienced investors. This is an electronic textbook: after each lesson there is a small quiz and at the end there is a 15-question exam. You can study on the website and in the application with the audio version of the lessons.

The topics must be passed in order: you cannot jump over the lesson or read only the most interesting. If you already have knowledge of investing, you can immediately take the final test. It turned out to answer all the questions - you need a more difficult level.

The course is designed for those who want to invest for 5-10 years and receive income from dividends and growth in the value of shares. Beginners will be taught to choose a broker and open IIS, buy securities and build a portfolio.

If you plan to make quick trades and make money on the difference in the value of assets, then it is better to take a course on short-term strategies. For example, "Easy Start" from our selection.

7. How to make money on stocks

• Level: experienced.
• Duration: 12 lessons.
• Author, platform: "Tinkoff-magazine".

Continuation of the course for beginners "How to Invest". Suitable for those who have already taken their first steps on the exchange.

At this level, you will learn to understand the financial statements of a company and evaluate its assets and debts in order to choose profitable stocks.

8. Financial instruments for a private investor

• Level: from beginners to advanced.
• Duration: up to 6 months.
• author: Higher School of Economics (HSE).
• Platform: Coursera.

If you need fundamental knowledge and a certificate that you are not ashamed to show employers, you can study at HSE on Coursera. The teachers are professors and associate professors of the Faculty of Economic Sciences. Format - video lectures and test tasks.

The Financial Instruments for the Private Investor specialization consists of six courses of 4–6 weeks each.

Five theoretical blocks are devoted to personal finance management, stock and bond selection, risk assessment and securities return. Much attention is paid to fundamental and technical analysis to build long-term and short-term strategies.

The sixth block is practical. The student creates an investment portfolio according to the specified criteria, predicts its growth and adapts it for two scenarios of economic development (optimistic and pessimistic).

The certificate can be obtained if all five theory blocks are successfully completed and the project is completed.

9. Investment appraisal

• Level: average.
• Duration: 25 video lessons, 10–20 minutes each.
• author: Aswat Damodaran is Professor of Finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University.
• Platform: YouTube.

Using simple examples, Asvat Damodaran talks about multipliers, risks and decision making under conditions of uncertainty.

The lectures have been translated from English, so sometimes there is confusion in terms. For example, shareholders are often referred to as investors. Despite such shortcomings, the course will be useful to everyone who is interested in the investment appraisal of a business.

10. Getting started, investing

• Level: beginners.
• Duration: 6 o'clock.
• Author, platform: "Opening Investments".

This collection contains up-to-date courses for investors - on personal financial planning, tools and stock market players. A beginner trader will benefit from a course on stock trading in securities.

After this collection, you can study other courses. The Open Investments platform provides training for investors with different strategies. For example, lectures on foreign markets are suitable for owners of an aggressive (high-risk) portfolio. And if there is a desire to get an average yield on stable securities - bonds, the rate of a conservative investor will be useful.

For the active trader, there is a section on technical analysis and margin trading (with leverage).

11. Investments 101

• Level: from beginners to advanced.
• Duration: 20 courses, 0.5–2 hours each.
• Author, platform: BCS.

The BCS investor education service offers video courses on the operation of stock markets, investment principles and exchange instruments.

The resource will be useful to those who are interested in practical trading - short-term speculative transactions on the stock exchange. An entire section is devoted to technical analysis and risk management. There is a separate course where they teach how to work in programs for Internet trading: QUIK, Metatrader.

The training format is video lectures and interactive tests. There is a trading simulator in order to gain practical skills in trading on the stock exchange.

12. Asset Allocation

• Level: from beginners to advanced.
• author: Sergey Spirin is an entrepreneur, investor and teacher.
• Platform: AssetAllocation.

Asset Allocation is the allocation of assets in a portfolio to balance return and risk. Therefore, the entire AssetAllocation site is dedicated to diversification and long-term strategies.

There are webinars, lectures and videos on any investment-related topic. Also, AssetAllocation has collected famous books and investor interviews that help navigate modern stock markets. For example, Sergei Spirin translated and posted two brochures from the US Securities and Exchange Commission website with recommendations for private investors.