Investments and markets

How shares and bonds are sold, traded and measured. These lessons start with the markets and the orders investors place, then cover what stocks, bonds and funds are, how risk and return are measured, why diversification works, how options and futures pay off, what fees and tax take, and how investor behaviour and unreliable sources cause losses.

An invented stock, order book, company and share carry the mechanics so every number can be checked. Arm and Reddit, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, and two real global funds show the same ideas in published documents, and real market returns from 2000 to 2024 show risk, diversification and the cost of reacting to a bad year.

7 lessons, about 2 hours 52 minutes of reading in all. Start at the top and go in order.

After this module you will be able to

• tell the primary market from the secondary market and compare a market order with a limit order
• explain what a stock, a bond and a fund represent and who is paid first
• measure return and volatility and see how diversification changes risk
• work out the payoff of a call, a put and a futures contract
• calculate what fees and tax take from a fund's return
• spot common investor biases and the red flags of an investment scam

The lessons

1. How securities markets work22 minPrimary and secondary markets, the order book, bid-ask spread, market and limit orders and index weighting, with a live order calculator and two real IPOs.
2. Stocks, bonds and funds24 minWhat stocks, bonds and funds are, who is paid first, and how Coca-Cola and PepsiCo finance themselves, with a live calculator of returns to owners and lenders.
3. Risk and return24 minTotal return, compounded return and standard deviation, with a calculator comparing US stocks and Treasury bonds across periods from 2000 to 2024.
4. Diversification26 minHow correlation, asset allocation and rebalancing change portfolio risk, with a live stock and bond mix calculator built on real US returns from 2000 to 2024.
5. Options and futures26 minHow calls, puts and futures pay off, with a live payoff calculator, the size of a real oil futures contract, and a worked hedge. Education, not advice.
6. Fees, taxes and net returns24 minHow the expense ratio, sales charge and tax shrink what an investor keeps, with a live calculator comparing two real global funds over decades.
7. Biases and evaluating sources26 minLoss aversion, herd behaviour and other investor biases, the cost of reacting to a bad year, and the SEC's red flags for judging an investment claim.

Start with the first lesson