|
The Investment Competence® Course
Course Outline
There are 8 lessons (each followed by a test) as follows:
Lesson One - What is an Investment?
- Definition of investing and examples of investing
- Return on investment and compounded return
- Rate of return
- Future value of an investment
- Components of return - Income and capital gains
- Drill - components of return
- Some ways to use compounded return in planning investments
- Estimating return - "Rule of 72"
Lesson Two - The Stock Market
- Definition of stock as ownership in a company.
- Selling shares of ownership - initial public offering
- Use of money raised from sale to public
- How does a company earn money?
- Use of earnings
- Buying and selling of shares - secondary market
- What is a stock exchange?
- The major stock exchanges around the world
- Supply and demand and its impact on price of stock
- What makes investors want to buy or sell?
Lesson Three - The Bond Market
- What is a bond?
- Interest payments and future value
- Types of bonds
- Buying and selling bonds
- Effect of general interest rates on price of bonds
- Yields - coupon and current
- Yield to maturity and how it is calculated
- Bond ratings and what they mean
- Drill - factors affecting the price of bonds
Lesson Four - Mutual Funds
- What is a Mutual Fund?
- How share value is determined - Net Asset Value
- Rate of return for mutual funds - income, capital gains, costs
- Difference between open end and closed end funds
- Types of funds - matching objectives to funds
- Answers to common questions about mutual funds
- Drill - Relationship between net asset value, number of new shares and
redemptions
Lesson Five - Other Investments
- Bank Accounts
- Real Estate
- Precious Metals
- Commodities and Futures
- Options - Put and Call
- Options - price components - value and time
- Collectibles
Lesson Six - Barriers to Investing and Handling
- Understanding the business cycle and its effect on investing
- Bull and Bear - long, short and hedge
- Risk and diversification
- Volatility and risk analysis
- Liquidity
- Inflation and handling inflation
- Taxes and providing for taxes
- Fraud and how to avoid
Lesson Seven - Getting Started
- Sources of capital
- Setting objectives and starting with a definite amount (lump sum)
- Investing periodic amounts and the effect on return
- Planning for periodic withdrawals
- Retirement/Financial Freedom Planning
- Investment strategies
- Measuring performance - where to get financial data and what it
means
- Tactical tips
- What to do now
Lesson Eight - Quiz
This section is a quiz covering the entire Investment Competence
course. Answers are automatically graded and, if there are any mistakes, the
student is referred to the section containing the material needing review. If
the student is in "browse" mode", the results are not scored. If
the course is being done in sequence, the student will be eligible for a
certificate of completion once a score of at least 80% is attained.
| 
