Stock investing is a difficult yet fruitful endeavor for most people. When you begin investing, it’s a whole new world of filings, research, market news, and keeping your portfolio diverse and equally distributed.
But there are ways to overcome initial mistakes and losses when you first start trading.
Stock investing classes can help a new or experienced investor correct many of the mistakes they’ll make initially. The best part is that some are definitely worth the money – they’re free – while other classes do come at a premium and are worth every penny.
Let’s take a look at some of the stock investing classes that are worth taking in 2016:
Free Stock Investing Classes
Stocks and Bonds: Risks and Returns
Stanford University offers a free course by Joshua Rauh, Finance professor. The course is called “Stocks and Bonds: Risks and Returns,” which is offered on Stanford’s OpenEx platform. This self-paced program will provide the foundation all investors need to enter the stock market with the ability to make money.
First, the course teaches:
- An overview of the bond market
- Interest rate discussions
- Fundamentals of the stock market
- Analysis of stocks and the market
This is a great primer for anyone wanting to invest in the stock market – or in bonds.
Introduction to Investments
An in-depth, free course is offered by IIMBx and EDx that spans 5 weeks with a commitment of 5 hours per week. The course on investments allows you to get a good understanding of:
- Global markets
- Equities trade
- Financial markets
- Financial analysis
- Techniques for valuating markets and companies
Again, this is an introductory course that will be used as a primer before investing in the stock market. It’s a robust course that is kept online and allows you to learn the fundamentals at your own pace.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy is a robust learning portal. While the site doesn’t offer formal classes on the stock market and investing, it does include dozens of videos on everything from stock market basics to understanding market crashes and short selling.
Paid Stock Investing Classes
Online Trading Academy
The giant in the online stock trading education community. Online Trading Academy has been in the business since 1997 when the company began as a trading floor. The company has since moved its focus on teaching, and has over 150,000 students that are online or at more than 30 teaching centers across the United States.
The school offers a free Trading Workshop, which teaches the basics, but the true value of the experience comes from paid courses.
Professional workshops and courses can cost between $2,000 and $5,000 each, and access to the course is granted for a student’s lifetime. A series of workshops are available that teach you how to make low-risk trades and smart investment decisions.
Advanced courses are offered in stocks, options, future and forex, too.
Day Trading Academy
Day Trading Academy has been in business since 2011 and is the creation of Marcello Arrambide, a professional day trader. The methods learned in the class can be applied to all market conditions, which is a major bonus for investors that know markets can be volatile.
Programs will start at nearly $3,000 and include live webinars that are held during market hours to show strategies and techniques in real-time.
Interaction with professional traders, question and answer sessions, and recaps are given to teach investors how to make the most out of their trades.
While the information learned in the course isn’t for long-term investors, it is the right course for anyone that has the ambition to become a day trader.
A lot can be said about books related to stock investing, too. Courses provide a hand-held approach to learning how to trade, while books provide more personal insight from proven investors that have made millions off of the stock market.
Experience is a necessity when trading the right way.
Investors can and do lose money all the time when investing in the stock market. Read books, take online courses and put your knowledge into action with the expectation that some stocks will go bust, while others will provide you with the knowledge to make smarter trades in the future.
