This course is meant to teach people about “value investing” – Warren Buffett’s style of investing. However, this is the very first course I completed when I was looking to learn the basics and it was helpful, even though I didn’t aspire to become a value investor.
You’ll learn and/or reinforce your knowledge on a lot of important basics about stock market investing. From “what is a stock”, “what is a bond” to how to complete valuations on individual stocks using things like a discounted cash flow (DCF) calculator (which is also used for determining EV/NAV), how to do fundamental analysis, how to use a stock screener and many other important concepts.
Although this blog focuses on natural resource and commodity investing, and this course focuses on value investing, I still think it is a must for every beginner, and everyone who just wants to reinforce their knowledge.
Champions are brilliant at the basics.
– John WoodenI find that investors tend to “just do it” and often skip the basics. That’s not a great trait for self-learners.
In the “modern” school system, you’re forced to learn the basics, and you get a step-by-step plan for doing that. Unfortunately, the system barely ever teaches you anything actionable. They tell you how you could do it, in theory, but they don’t show you how to actually take the leap and do it.
So, It’s natural to want to jump directly to the actionable part, if you don’t like how the school system works, but I don’t think that’s a good idea with investing. I think one should understand the basics first. Even if you already know some things about investing, it’s likely you’ll learn something new from this free course.
This is particularly true if you’re starting off in the natural resource industry. If you can’t value and understand a company like Google, for example, the probability of you being a successful commodity investor will be lower.
The course also focuses partly on investor mentality. For example, Preston goes over Warren Buffett’s four main rules for buying a stock. Those four rules are even more so important in natural resource investing.
1. The company must be managed by vigilant leaders
2. The company must have clear long-term plans
3. The structure of the company must be stable and easily understandable
4. The shares of the company must be undervalued
These four basic rules for stock market investing are even more so important in natural resource investing. Only, yes only, if all four of these rules are met would I go into further research. If they are not met, the company is not worth losing time on.
Come to think of it, the course teaches you how to test a company, and see if it ticks all four boxes.
What I wrote above sounds as if I’m selling something, but the course is simply available on YouTube and I have no affiliation with its publisher whatsoever. It’s just the first course I took when I was getting into the stock market in 2018, and I can’t recommend it enough.
Here’s the link: Free stock market investing for beginners course
