Introduction to Investing for Beginners: Stocks, mutual funds

Investment course for beginner: Stock Market, Mutual funds

In this course, we are going to learn how to invest in stock trade and mutual funds step by step.

The beginner's guide to investing for beginners that you've been looking for your entire life. for that, you have to set your financial goal.

So, we'll leave "exciting" to your decision. However, we're convinced that once you understand the truth about the vast array of chances accessible to you through investment - opportunities that you can utilize to develop and grow your fortune – you'll be more than a little excited.

We'll also go over some fundamental investing rules for beginners, which are applicable to any sort of investment. These concepts can greatly assist you in increasing your investment performance and profitability.

Introduction to Investing for beginners

A gentle recommendation before we get started with investing for beginners in earnest... relax. The field of investing is vast, and there is practically a limitless quantity of information to learn about it. The best and most successful investors will tell you that they are constantly learning, polishing, and growing their knowledge on how to make money in the financial markets.

You won't be able to study everything there is to know about investing, or even investing for beginners, in a single day, but you won't need to do so to start a career as a successful, lucrative investor.

When we talk of investment, our idea behind investing is keeping some money in reserve, with the view of using it on rainy days. Unfortunately, most of the common people have no idea if the money they are keeping aside qualifies as an investment or not. The classical methods of investing such as regularly buying small quantities of gold or keeping the money in fixed deposits, or in a postal saving scheme hardly qualify as an investment. At the most, we may call them bad investments. Why? The majority of people have no clear concepts about this. 

The present course explains different avenues of investment. It also helps viewers to identify good and bad investments. It explains the concept of Assets and Liabilities. A good investment is nothing else but the creation of assets. Unfortunately, what is called an asset in the balance sheet may not really be an asset. So, what exactly is an asset, and how is it different from a liability? Can today’s asset turn into tomorrow’s liability? Understand the concept of assets and liabilities, and how to identify them. Also, understand what are essential liabilities and what are non-essential liabilities. 

Talking about different classes of investing, the course discusses different avenues of investment such as stocks, mutual funds, bonds, bullion, real estate, etc. in a series of videos. It explains the rules of investing, and how to calculate the time period that doubles your investment. All the asset classes, their merits, limitations, potential returns, methods of entry, precautions to be taken while entering the assets, methods of exit have been explained in this course. 

Last but not the least, the course also explains the potential of insurance as a method of investment. Many people wrongly consider insurance as an investment. However, if we put it to an acid test, does it really qualify as an investment? And what are the reasons for that? All these and many more facts have been put up and concepts clarified in this course named -Introduction to Investing for beginners.

Types of Investing: 

This is the foundation of investing for beginners. You can invest in a variety of ways, but almost all of them fall into one of a few categories known as "asset classes." An asset class is a group of investments that share similar features and are often governed by the same set of financial rules.

Types of Assets:

The following are the asset classes that most people are familiar with:

1) Stocks/Equities

2) Fixed Income investments/Bonds

3) Cash or cash equivalents

Equity Investing:

When most people hear the phrase "investing," they generally think of buying and selling stocks in publicly traded corporations or investing in the stock market. Equity investing is a common investment for beginners.

The most essential component in determining a stock price is, of course, the performance of the company. Other factors that influence stock prices are the overall performance of the industry in which the firm operates, the performance of competitors, economic conditions, and government actions.

Technical or fundamental analysis is frequently used to aid stock investors in their investment decisions.

Fixed Income Investing for Beginners

Fixed income investing refers to debt instruments that provide investors with fixed-rate interest payments for a set period of time — the debt security's life. The term "bonds" is often used to describe debt securities. The bond market is one of the largest in the world, owing to the vast amount of debt that most countries carry.

When you buy a bond, you're lending money to a firm or a government, and in exchange, you get a fixed interest rate called the "coupon rate." Bond interest is usually paid semi-annually or annually until the bond's full principal amount is returned on the bond's designated maturity date.

The coupon rate is the interest rate offered on a bond when it is issued. The value of a bond and its real "yield to maturity" change as interest rates fluctuate up or down over the life of the bond. A bond's value and yield are affected by fluctuating interest rates, which do not vary over the life of the bond. Bond prices fall when interest rates rise; conversely, bond prices rise when interest rates fall.

Zero-Coupon Bonds

"Zero-coupon bonds" are bonds that have no interest rate attached to them. Zero-coupon bonds are sold at a large discount to the bond's face value rather than making monthly interest payments. Investors profit by purchasing the bond at less than face value and then redeeming it for full face value at maturity.

Basics of Investing for Beginners – Risk and Opportunity

One of the fundamental principles of investing for beginners would be this – risk and opportunity go together. They grow or shrink in lockstep with one another. Investing in something with a larger potential reward comes with a higher risk. Similarly, assets with a smaller potential return on investment (ROI) provide more security and reduced risk.

Fundamental Analysis

When it comes to investing analysis, investors tend to fall into one of two camps: those who rely on technical analysis and those who rely on fundamental analysis.

Fundamental analysis is based on economic data or reports, such as the monthly Non-Farm Payroll (NFP) report in the United States, which is regarded as a key indicator of the economy's overall health and, more specifically, job growth.

Fundamental stock investors evaluate companies based on information contained in a company's financial statements and earnings reports (typically represented as "earnings per share," or EPS), in addition to significant economic data such as the Producer Price Index (PPI) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). To evaluate a firm and its stock price, investors look at financial measures like the debt/equity ratio and the price/earnings ratio.

Technical Analysis

Many investors prefer to base their investment decisions on technical analysis. The technical analysis assesses securities based on market price and trading activity rather than basic economic or corporate facts. Price charts, patterns, technical indicators, and market activity (such as trading volume) are all used in technical analysis to forecast a security's likely future price movement.

Short-term or day traders frequently use technical analysis. Long-term investors who buy and hold shares rely on economic fundamentals more regularly, yet fundamental variables may have less impact on the price movement of a security in the short term — trading inside a single trading day – than technical factors.

Some investors, of course, use both fundamental and technical analysis to make trading decisions. For example, a gold futures investor can decide to buy or sell based on economic fundamentals but use technical analysis to determine particular price entry and exit/target points.

Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs)

For newcomers to investing, this is a crucial portion. Over the last few decades, stock exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have become a more popular investing option. ETFs are similar to mutual funds in that they pool the investing resources of a number of different individuals. Because ETFs, like individual stocks, can be purchased and sold at any moment during the trading day, they have a considerable liquidity advantage over mutual funds. Mutual fund shares, on the other hand, can only be bought or sold at the end-of-day closing price.

ETFs also have lower fees than mutual funds, lowering trading expenses and increasing overall net profitability.

The versatility of ETFs as investment vehicles adds to their popularity. ETFs can be used to invest in almost any asset class or investment.

ETFs may hold a portfolio of stocks related to transportation, banking, or healthcare. Bond ETFs are exchange-traded funds that invest in a broad portfolio of bonds with various interest rates and maturities. ETFs that hold actual gold or silver are available for investors who want to invest in precious metals but would rather possess ETF shares than physical metals.