Stop Worrying and Start Investing
Take control of your financial destiny with this comprehensive and easy-to-understand guide to the basics of investing taught by a professor of economics.
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.
Understanding Investments 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, 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.
24 Episodes (31 Minutes Each)
- How to Stop Worrying and Start Investing
- How Investors Make Money
- Starting with Stocks
- The Basics of Bonds
- Introduction to Mutual Funds
- What Are Exchange-Traded Funds?
- Financial Statement Analysis
- P/E Ratios and the Method of Comparables
- Fundamentals-Based Analysis of Stocks
- Startup Companies and IPOs
- Why Should You Care about Dividends?
- Using Leverage
- Choosing Bonds
- Bond School
- Picking Mutual Funds
- Investing in Foreign Assets
- Options Are for Everyone
- Real Estate and Commodities
- Cycles and Market Timing
- Deciding When to Sell
- Risk, Return, and Diversification
- Time Value of Money
- Financial Planning
- Taking Charge of Your Investments
Connel Fullenkamp, Ph.D.
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.
Also by this Professor
Instant, on-demand streaming of 24 half-hour lessons on the fundamentals of investing, taught by Connel Fullenkamp—an award-winning professor of economics from Duke University.
224-Page PDF Guidebook
- 224-page course synopsis
- Photos, tables & charts
- Suggested readings
- Questions to consider
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This is a very practical course that does a great job of holding the interest of both the financial novice and the more serious and experienced investor. Professor Fullenkamp is eager and earnest and has a very comfortable lecture style. He neither panders nor condescends and effectively communicates a lot of information in each lecture in a workmanlike fashion. His choice of material, the amount of time he devotes to each investment concept, and the pace at which he goes through the course topics are all right on the mark. If you like the study of investments, you will enjoy this course; if you find investments deathly dull, I think Professor Fullenkamp provides you a relatively painless way to gain important information you really should not be without. Bottom line, I give Professor Fullenkamp and the course very high marks and would recommend it to all.
I am a CPA and a CTP and by no means an investment expert of any type. I participated in this course with my 77 year old father because he needs guidance on how to make informed investment decisions even though he continues to work part-time in retirement. This course did an exceptional job of laying the foundation for investment decision making.
An absolutely fantastic review of investments. Clear and concise with appropriate illustrations. The professor has an excellent style of presentation and makes even the most complex concepts understandable.