Financial Literacy: Finding Your Way in the Financial Markets

Course Description
This course connects the larger financial world to everyday decisions, empowering you to better understand markets, manage risk, and build wealth. Learn how stocks, bonds, banks, and regulations shape the economy—and how to use that knowledge for smarter personal investments.

What You’ll Learn in the Course

• How financial markets connect to the real economy.

• The flow of money across businesses, governments, and households.

• The roles of banks, bonds, stocks, and global lending.

• How trading, pricing, and funds operate.

• Risk management, regulation, and future financial trends.

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Lessons

01: Feeling at Home in the Financial Markets — 30 min
Explore how financial markets function, linking financial and real assets through contracts.

02: Where the Money Goes — 29 min
Understand how market value compares to GDP and national debt, and track the flow of trillions in assets.

03: Financial Markets Run on Information — 30 min
Examine the critical role of information and remedies for asymmetric knowledge.

04: Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due — 29 min
Learn how credit scores work, preapprovals happen, and mortgages are analyzed.

05: The Fine Print — 29 min
Break down loan structures, credit card contracts, and the details of promissory notes.

06: What Is Special about Banks? — 28 min
Uncover how banks profit, their unique advantages, and their historical evolution.

07: Billion-Dollar IOUs: Using Bonds to Borrow — 30 min
Study bond issuance, ratings, and the growing importance of bond markets.

08: The Double Identity of Stocks — 29 min
Analyze corporate stock structures, shareholder rights, and stockholder value.

09: The Sell Job — 31 min
Learn the IPO process and how securities are sold and reviewed by the SEC.

10: The Mysterious Money Market — 30 min
Differentiate between capital and money markets, and study Treasury bills, commercial paper, and repos.

11: Think Globally, Lend… Globally — 30 min
Investigate the Eurodollar market, global borrowing, and the role of exchange rates.

12: Trading Securities — 30 min
See how trading evolved from crowded exchange floors to technology-driven systems.

13: Returns and Prices in the Secondary Market — 30 min
Interpret how financial instruments are quoted and calculate returns.

14: The Truth about Pricing — 29 min
Compare pricing theories, including fundamentals, economics-based, and comparables.

15: A Tale of Two Funds — 28 min
Contrast mutual funds and hedge funds, and examine strategies like short selling.

16: The Market for Corporate Control — 30 min
Delve into mergers, acquisitions, hostile takeovers, and stock swaps.

17: What Companies Tell the Markets — 29 min
Review corporate disclosures, from CEO compensation to annual financial reports.

18: What Moves the Markets — 29 min
Identify key economic indicators and statistics that shift markets.

19: When Central Banks Talk, Markets Listen — 30 min
Examine the role of central banks, their secrecy, and their market influence.

20: Interest Rates as Indicators — 29 min
Learn how benchmark rates and yield curves reveal economic conditions.

21: Risk Management and Insurance — 28 min
Understand daily investment risks and the role of insurance in protection.

22: Mortgages and Securitization — 31 min
Explore the mortgage market, securitization, and mortgage-backed securities.

23: The Whys and Hows of Financial Regulation — 31 min
Study the role of regulation, cycles of oversight, and lessons from the 2008 crisis.

24: The Future of Finance — 32 min
Discover how trends like peer-to-peer lending and digital finance are reshaping markets.