Every article on the site, arranged as a course. Work through the units in order and you get the equivalent of a full investments education, from what a financial asset is to how professionals build and protect wealth. Or jump straight to any single lesson when you just need one idea explained.
36 units, 210 lessons, roughly 8 minutes each
Units 01 through 28 cover the mechanics of markets and the theory behind portfolio construction, the way a graduate investments course would.
After this unit you will be able to explain what financial assets are, who the players in the markets are, and how the whole system fits together.
After this unit you will be able to identify the major asset classes, from money market instruments to derivatives, and what each is for.
After this unit you will be able to follow a security from issuance through trading, including margin, short sales, and the rules that govern it all.
After this unit you will be able to compare funds and ETFs, read their costs, and judge their performance claims.
After this unit you will be able to measure risk and return properly and read a century of market history without fooling yourself.
After this unit you will be able to decide how much of a portfolio belongs in risky assets versus safe ones, based on your own risk tolerance.
After this unit you will be able to explain why diversification works and how the Markowitz model builds an efficient portfolio.
After this unit you will be able to use the single index model to simplify portfolio construction and estimate a stock's beta.
After this unit you will be able to state what the CAPM says about expected returns and where it holds up or breaks down in practice.
After this unit you will be able to explain how multifactor models extend the CAPM and what the Fama-French factors capture.
After this unit you will be able to argue both sides of the market efficiency debate and know what the evidence actually shows.
After this unit you will be able to name the main behavioral biases that move markets and see how technical analysis relates to them.
After this unit you will be able to summarize what decades of empirical testing say about the pricing models from earlier units.
After this unit you will be able to price a bond, read its yield, and understand how default risk changes both.
After this unit you will be able to read a yield curve and explain the competing theories of why it takes the shape it does.
After this unit you will be able to measure a bond portfolio's interest rate risk with duration and convexity, and manage it actively or passively.
After this unit you will be able to work top down from the global economy through business cycles to the prospects of a single industry.
After this unit you will be able to value a stock with comparables, dividend discount models, and free cash flow approaches.
After this unit you will be able to read the three major financial statements and use ratio analysis to judge a firm's real performance.
After this unit you will be able to read an option contract, sketch its payoff at expiration, and combine options into basic strategies.
After this unit you will be able to price an option with the binomial and Black-Scholes models and know what each assumes.
After this unit you will be able to explain how futures contracts work, how they trade, and what determines their prices.
After this unit you will be able to see how futures and swaps hedge currency, equity, interest rate, and commodity risk.
After this unit you will be able to evaluate a manager's track record with the right risk adjusted measures and attribute where returns came from.
After this unit you will be able to weigh the risks and diversification benefits of investing beyond your home market.
After this unit you will be able to describe the main hedge fund strategies, their fee structures, and why measuring their performance is hard.
After this unit you will be able to explain how the Treynor-Black and Black-Litterman frameworks turn forecasts into portfolios, and what active management is really worth.
After this unit you will be able to write an investment policy statement and manage a portfolio the way a professional fiduciary would.
Units 29 through 36 apply everything above to the situation of doctors, lawyers, and other high earning professionals: the late start, the big loans, and the moves that matter most.
After this unit you will be able to see clearly where a high earning professional actually stands: behind schedule, not automatically rich, and with a concrete number to aim for.
After this unit you will be able to manage the education debt years well and lock in the savings habits that do most of the work later.
After this unit you will be able to build a simple index portfolio you can hold through crashes, and know the rare cases for deviating from it.
After this unit you will be able to tell how any advisor is paid, shop for fiduciary advice, and decide whether you need help at all.
After this unit you will be able to protect what you build with the boring tools that work, and pass it on without probate drama.
After this unit you will be able to fill tax advantaged accounts in the right order and know when structuring your practice actually saves money.
After this unit you will be able to balance enjoying money today against retiring well, and spot the lifestyle traps aimed at professionals.
After this unit you will be able to insure the right risks, handle student loans and the house decision, and keep your finances flexible enough to survive burnout or a career change.
Articles are quick reference. If you want a subject taught properly from the ground up, start with the Guides, or read The Laws of Investing for the compressed version of everything.
everything here is education, not individualized financial advice