# reputable, objective investment courses/training



## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Alright. I am willing to invest some time and money to learn more about investing. Despite what I thought I knew, I still obviously don't get it. I would like to know if there are some good classroom in-person evening courses available in the prairies that I can attend. 

The course needs to be objective and I am totally willing to pay for this to avoid any subjective sales pitches and not end up being cleverly spammed. I'm there to learn about investing but am not really looking for a self-directed, do it at home affair. I wish to listen to an instructor in person as well as to be able to ask questions etc in a classroom setting.

Does such a thing exist?


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

I doubt such a thing exists, but I could be wrong.

I would recommend the IFIC for you. It's a good intro, and isn't overly expensive - maybe $350?

It's self-study and there is a written exam at the end.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

Take a look at the continuing education courses at the universities in your region. 

If you have colleges nearby, one or more of them may offer courses which fulfill the requirement for the CFP designation (which doesn't compel you to become a CFP nor do they certify you as a CFP; they allow you to sit the exam). 

Instead of the IFIC course (which is the mutual funds licensing course), you may wish to consider the CSC course (more expensive, more in-depth) or the actual CFP courses (much more expensive, much more in-depth). 

You could think about these courses as an investment in your human capital. If YOU have the knowledge and confidence to invest for yourself profitably, this is actually worth something in foregone paid advice and MERs. 

Also - the fact that different people here express different opinions doesn't mean anything about whether you "get it" or not. There are many different investing styles; and virtually everything written about investing styles in these kinds of forums deals with expected prices ("valuations are low and someone buying today can expect to see returns in the xxx range") - that is, there is a strong element of prediction. 

You have to find an approach you are comfortable with, despite the risk and uncertainty you are faced with. There's nothing wrong with starting simple. You have the rest of your life to get this sorted out.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

You can also learn a lot online through free courses and websites.

Morningstar's Investing Classroom (http://www.morningstar.com/Cover/Classroom.html) is quite good. It is geared toward investors in the United States but the basic concepts apply here in Canada as well; I haven't taken the whole thing but I've taken a few courses here and there over the years. Nobody from Morningstar has contacted me or otherwise tried to sell me anything. You have to enter a zip code in order to register, but you could enter a bogus one, it doesn't matter.

Shakespeare's Primer (http://www.shakesprimer.com/) is pretty useful as well, although I think calling it a primer is a stretch. A lot of the "basic" resources on investing are written by experts who forget that your average person on the street doesn't even know what an "equity" is or a "dividend" or a "capital gain." So the reader gets lost after page 1 and gives up.


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## msimms (Apr 17, 2009)

Drop by your local library and borrow the book "Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Intelligent_Investor

free and imo a good place to start. 
And if you find it's all not for you, then no money wasted.


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

MoneyGal said:


> ...
> 
> Instead of the IFIC course (which is the mutual funds licensing course), you may wish to consider the CSC course (more expensive, more in-depth) or the actual CFP courses (much more expensive, much more in-depth).
> 
> ...


Royal has indicated that he has had a hard time learning about investments, which is why I think that the IFIC might be a better first course than the CSC which is more difficult.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

Yes, but he's also indicated an interest in investments beyond mutual funds, which the IFIC course is really not going to give him.


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## CanadianCapitalist (Mar 31, 2009)

I would start with the library as well. Your local library is likely to contain a veritable treasure trove of books on investing and if you read enough of them, you'll know more on the subject than 90% of folks who provide financial advice.


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## bean438 (Jul 18, 2009)

I also recommend the intelligent investor, but get the newer one with the commentary by Zweig after each chapter.

Also read the single best investment by lowell miller. Its all about dividend growth investing, so it has a bias, but it is a good bias.

The investment zoo by Stephen Jarislosky. Great book, and what he has to say is gold. He is a billionaire, and we are not, nuff said.

Dont waste your money on courses.


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## Larry6417 (Jan 27, 2010)

You want reputable and objective? That's asking for a lot! I took the Canadian Securities Course for fun, and I noticed something interesting: it's not actually an investing course. It's very useful for learning about Canadian capital markets, economic theory, types of products, taxation, etc. But nowhere does the course tell you "do this to make big money." There's also a bit of bias in the CSC. For example, it extolled to virtues of Canadian capital markets, while the rest of the world considers Canadian investor protection and regulation a joke - for good reason. Apparently the CSC considers it sensible for a country with 2% of the world's stock market capitalization to have 13 regulators. Also, I remember a section on technical investing. Most objective analyses show limited, if any, benefit to technical investing (there _might_ be some value to following the 200 day moving average). Yet the author of that portion claimed that one technique worked 75% of the time based on personal experience - no scientific analysis as proof! Overall, I'm glad I took the CSC, but it might not give you what you want. CSI (Canadian Securities Institute) does offer some investing courses, but they are online (some local colleges may have concomittant classes). See www.csi.ca/student/en_ca/courses/investment_index.xhtml

The CFP couses have some sections devoted to investing, but it's really meant to give a good grounding to financial advisors. You could take the introductory course (I believe that's a prerequisite for the later courses) then take the later courses pertaining to investing.

I don't think there is such a thing as a completely objective course. You have to be prepared to evaluate biases of the presenters. If there were a completely objective investing course, based on the best scientific data, it would last for only 30 seconds. Just long enough for the instructor to write on the chalkboard:" Buy the lowest-cost index fund."


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

MoneyGal said:


> Yes, but he's also indicated an interest in investments beyond mutual funds, which the IFIC course is really not going to give him.


From what I recall, the course is a lot more than mutual funds. It talks about investment time horizons, stock markets, dividends etc.

I would agree with other posters however that the library is the best choice.


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## Dr_V (Oct 27, 2009)

IMO, a "continuing education" course at a local college is your best bet. These courses tend to be cheaper and more practical (sometimes, more hands-on) than their university equivalents.

For example, a really quick search on Conestoga College's website brought up:

https://portal.conestogac.on.ca/Con...id=0&CAMId=33&MODId=1&Key=finance&CRSId=20335

https://portal.conestogac.on.ca/Content/Default.aspx?mgid=0&smid=5&ssmid=0&Key=investing&CRSId=19274

https://portal.conestogac.on.ca/Content/Default.aspx?mgid=0&smid=5&ssmid=0&Key=investing&CRSId=19125

You can probably search the course offerings of similar colleges in your area.


K.


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## Sampson (Apr 3, 2009)

Dr_V said:


> IMO, a "continuing education" course at a local college is your best bet. These courses tend to be cheaper and more practical (sometimes, more hands-on) than their university equivalents.


Some of these are sponsored by less-than independent agencies. In Calgary, I took, or have taken one that was offered by ShareOwners. Not bad per se, but obviously not exactly independent.

Some offered at the colleges and smaller Universities are offered by looking CFPs and CFAs.


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## Oldroe (Sep 18, 2009)

"I agree" Shareowners has a video course that goes with a mentoring program neither witch I've done.

Did go to live presentation in Toronto years ago combined with home study. Takes you threw lot's of calculation base on financial statements gets you looking at charts and provides solid stock assessment.

The cost are more than Questrade and dirt cheap in the long run.


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## dagman1 (Mar 3, 2010)

msimms said:


> Drop by your local library and borrow the book "Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Intelligent_Investor
> 
> free and imo a good place to start.
> And if you find it's all not for you, then no money wasted.


+1000. This really is the best $25 you can ever spend. It really is the first book anyone should read about investing.


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## CyrusWalker (Jun 29, 2010)

You get some on the info's I've read on the site Lion referred to me!


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## wheel (Jun 22, 2010)

If you're talking about investing=stock/equity then your first place should be reading up on 'index funds'. Most folks who think 'investing' are thinking active trading,but this, sell that etc. But when it comes to learning, you'll find a lot of actual stats around index funds - lots of the stuff centered around other types of investing sound reasonable but are in fact based on voodoo. There's a lot of books on index funds out there, buy a few and start reading.

But as others have noted, the mutual funds area isn't the end of investing. There are other factors. For the other stuff you should look into modern portfolio theory which basically looks into asset allocation (another area where most people in the business are leading with voodoo science). One of the best treatments/simplifications of modern portfolio theory is "The New Pension Strategy for Canadians" by Andrew Springett. I find the title a bit misleading. Well worth the read.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

Springett's book is worth reading but the title and the argument are (IMO) totally misleading. The title should be (something like) _Manage your Money as if it was a Pension Fund._ 

Springett equates a "pension" with a well-run portfolio that follows certain investing principles and practices. This is inaccurate - without longevity insurance, you aren't creating a "pension fund" by applying MPT to your portfolio! The whole point of a true pension is that it pays you NO MATTER how the underlying investments perform. In fact, if you have a true pension, you are indifferent to investment return.


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## gbebee (Jul 5, 2009)

*Investing Course*

You could check out evening school offerings at your local school board. 
If you live in Toronto you could sign up for a Toronto District School Board evening course I teach on investment planning at Burnhamthorpe Collegiate. The next one starts in September.

Gail Bebee
Canada's Independent Voice on Personal Finance 
Author of No Hype - The Straight Goods on Investing Your Money
www.gailbebee.com


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