$ 59.95   USD
  • Course Code:  GC08

  • Term:  Fall 2015

  • Open for Enrollment

  • Self-paced

  • Course Author(s)
    The Great Courses

Original Price:   $ 59.95   USD
Diagrama

Understanding Investments

Fall 2015

Business

  • The great courses
    The Great Courses
    Instructor

Description

 

Understanding Investments

 

 

What are your most important financial goals? Sending your kids to college? Buying a new home? Retiring early? Having the freedom to not worry about whether you can afford to buy a new car or go on vacation? It's your financial resources that are the determining factor in how you're able to answer these and a host of other questions, and few things are as important in determining just what those financial resources are as your understanding of where and how to invest.

 

Investing, and the skills to succeed at it, play critical roles in building and maintaining your financial resources. Investment opportunities are available to everyone. No matter where on your financial timeline you may be—whether you're just starting out, approaching retirement, or somewhere in between—there is no question that improving and enhancing your investment skills can have a positive impact on your financial life and, in turn, your life goals.

 

Understanding Investments helps you do just that. In 24 lectures, it introduces the fundamentals of investing to those new to the subject while broadening and deepening the knowledge of more experienced investors. Taught by Professor Connel Fullenkamp, an award-winning educator from Duke University who regularly consults in the world of international finance, these lectures clearly explain the various kinds of financial markets, the different kinds of investments available to you, and the pros and cons of each. Even more important: The course shows you how to evaluate each of these in terms of your own financial situation.

 

 

Essential Knowledge for Newcomers and Experienced Investors

 

If you're a newcomer to investing, Understanding Investments will give you the confidence—and specific tools—to:

 

 Get your feet wet in the investment world and begin building your investment portfolio, even if you have to start small

 Better understand the recommendations and advice of more experienced investors and financial advisors

 Develop your own personal investment plan

 Move toward realizing your plan's goals with as little anxiety and fear as possible.

 

And if you happen to be that more experienced investor, this course will:

 

 Introduce you to some advanced investment strategies and opportunities;

 Show you how to stay on top of your portfolio, and

 Adjust its direction as economic conditions—or your own plans—change.

 

In addition to making you a more knowledgeable and confident investor, Understanding Investments will also help you make sense of the financial news that makes up an increasing share of what you read in our newspapers, watch on television, or discover on the Internet. And it will also help you better grasp the financial condition and performance of the company at which you work, which can be invaluable in making key career decisions.

 

Using case studies, actual trading examples, and visual aids—including charts, graphs, and even the step-by-step construction of a simple financial planning spreadsheet—Professor Fullenkamp makes every point clear, so that no previous knowledge of the subject is required. You'll learn how the world of money works in plain English, with the only insider jargon being the specific terms you need to know in order to safely navigate the investment marketplace and understand what is being offered to you.

 

 

Learn How to Invest with Confidence and Success

 

In Understanding Investments, you learn the essential information every investor needs to know, including

 

 The basics of the stock market

 Investment options like stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, as well as other instruments like exchange-traded funds (or "ETFs") that go beyond these standard choices

 How to read and understand stock quotes and indexes

 Tools and simple calculation techniques for researching companies you may be considering as potential investments

 The ins and outs of online investing

 What dividends and stock splits are really meant to accomplish;

 The characteristics of bull and bear markets;

 The importance of regularly reassessing your financial goals;

 The management of diversification and risk, including the keys to avoiding the most common ways in which these two key factors are commonly misunderstood; and

 The importance of a well-thought-out plan for continuing to invest after retirement.

 

In addition, Professor Fullenkamp makes a point of discussing some of the latest findings in behavioral economics so you can grasp the psychological forces investors face in various investment situations. These forces may well be helping to drive any decisions you make, and understanding their presence is an important defense against being driven in the wrong direction, even to the point of inadvertently sabotaging your investments.

 

For example, we've all seen the fortunes made by those lucky enough to be in on the initial public offerings—or IPOs—of companies that went on to become enormous successes. And most of us would plead guilty to dreaming of getting in on the ground floor of the next startup that goes on to become a Coca-Cola or an Apple or a Microsoft.

 

But if you ever have the opportunity to invest in a startup, you'll be grateful for the tools Professor Fullenkamp gives you to wade through the complexities and psychological hazards. He shows you how to objectively evaluate a startup, determine its possibilities for success, and decide—with as little emotion as possible, and with full awareness of what psychological forces might be at play—whether it warrants a place in your portfolio.

 

 

Invest with Minimal Fear and Maximum Confidence

 

You'll be using the same skills this course has been designed to give you when you evaluate any investment opportunity—skills that will allow you to invest with as little fear and as much confidence as possible. And, as your professor notes, that's the whole idea.

 

"Because investing looks complicated and risky, most people don't feel well-prepared to make investment decisions," Professor Fullenkamp says. "And when we don't feel prepared to make decisions, we put them off, if we can. And it's so easy to put off investing decisions, because there's no real deadline."

 

"But putting off investing is one of the biggest mistakes that people make with their personal finances. It turns time, which can be one of your best allies, into your worst enemy."

 

By showing you a way around this mistake, Understanding Investments can be, long before you ever stride into that financial marketplace, the smartest investment you make.

 

Please note: This course is not intended to provide explicit financial or investment advice. All investments involve risk: Past performance does not guarantee future success. You acknowledge that any reliance on any information from the materials contained in this course shall be at your own risk.

 

 

Instructor Biography

Connel Fullenkamp, Ph.D.

Duke University

 

Professor Connel Fullenkamp is Professor of the Practice and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Economics at Duke University. He teaches financial economics courses, such as corporate finance, as well as core courses, such as economic principles. In addition to teaching, he serves as a consultant for the Duke Center for International Development. Prior to joining the Duke faculty in 1999, Professor Fullenkamp was a faculty member in the Department of Finance within the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame. Originally from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Professor Fullenkamp earned his undergraduate degree in Economics from Michigan State University. In addition to receiving the Harry S. Truman Scholarship, he was named one of the university's Alumni Distinguished Scholars. He earned his master's and doctorate degrees in Economics from Harvard University, where he was also awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Professor Fullenkamp's areas of interest include financial market development and regulation, economic policy, and immigrant remittances. His work has appeared in a number of prestigious academic journals, including the Review of Economic Dynamics, The Cato Journal, and the Journal of Banking and Finance. He also does consulting work for the IMF Institute at the International Monetary Fund, training government officials around the world. He is a member of the IMF Institute's finance team, whose purpose is to train central bankers and other officials in financial market regulation, focusing on derivatives and other new financial instruments. In recognition of his teaching excellence, Professor Fullenkamp has received Duke University's Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award as well as the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business Outstanding Teacher Award. Along with Sunil Sharma, Professor Fullenkamp won the third annual ICFR-Financial Times Research Prize for their paper on international financial regulation. 

New User? Sign up.

×
One Last Thing!

Check your email inbox and click on the email verification link we just sent you.

If it doesn’t reach your inbox in a few moments, it might be in your spam folder. Don’t forget to add our email address to your contacts if it did end up in spam! That’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.

As soon as you’ve verified your email, you’ll be able to continue.


Continue

×

Confirm Payment

Payment Unavailable. Try again later.

Understanding Investments

59.95 USD


Credit Card
PayPal