We all know how difficult it is to incorporate any additional learning into our busy everyday schedule. Therefore, websites such as Coursera are great.
They offer flexible learning patterns and study options in a wide range of subjects from finance to software engineering. Investment is a very difficult topic to tackle, even for someone who has experience in it.
Whether you want to learn about the stock market to invest your own money personally or are a small business owner and you want to see how you can invest money to boost your own profits, there’ll be a course to suit everyone.
So, what are the best Coursera investment courses for you? Can you learn for free, or do you have to pay for a subscription? Well, we have everything that you need to know about investing and which course will be the right one for you. (You can also check out ‘Coursera Alternatives You’ll Love‘ for more investment courses!)
Best Coursera Investment Courses
1. Financial Markets
To make a rock-solid investment, you’ll need to know how the financial markets work. This course will help you to learn about the fundamentals of securities, investments, and the banking sector as a whole to give you a better understanding of finances as a whole.
This is more of a broad subject, covering how finance affects society, although it does cover some investment do’s and don’t’s that you can implement in your everyday life. This course can be learned in 33 hours and is taught 100% online.
2. Investment Management Specialization
If you want to make bold investment choices, you’ll need to understand the system that underpins it. This will teach you how rational actions will affect the market and how the financial sector, as a whole, works.
This financial management specialization course is aimed at the beginner level, so no prior knowledge is required.
This covers topics such as meeting investor goals, risk management, and how to organize your client’s portfolio. This is aimed at someone who wants to become an investment manager. This course is taught in many languages including Vietnamese, German, and Russian.
3. Practical Guide To Training Specialization
How does capital work its way around the globe? Well, this course will teach you all about the movement of finances and how they impact the marketplace.
This course states that previous investment experience will be helpful but not necessary for completing this course.
This is one of the longest online courses in investment that Coursera has to offer, taking around 4 months to complete. This comes with a flexible schedule, which will allow you to learn at your own pace. This is great if you are trying to fit your course around a busy job.
4. Investment And Portfolio Management Specialization
Whether you are wanting to work with investors on a grander scale or want to help small-time investors, then this is the course for you. This investment management specialization course covers all the up-to-date investment strategies as well as how to manage your client’s portfolio.
This course is around 6 months long, so you’ll want to be sure that you are committed to it for the long term before you invest in the portfolio management specialization course. This offers flexible learning and is entirely online, which is great if you don’t have time to get into the classroom every day.
5. Financial Planning For Young Adults
This is an essential course for any younger person, breaking down some of the key concepts of good investment and financial planning in a way that is easy to understand.
This will cover budgeting, saving, investing, financial risks, and how to borrow money responsibly.
This is a very short course, but it will be a great foundation for anyone to learn the basics of financial planning and how to money their money effectively. This course is all online, which is great for anyone who is still studying at school or university.
6. Fundamentals Of Investing
This is another course that aims to start from the very beginning, covering the basics of investment and giving you great foundational knowledge on which to build your skills.
This comes with a certificate upon completion, which will be great for padding out your portfolio. (See ‘Are Coursera Certificates Worth It in 2023?‘)
This is great for personal homeowners who want to make sensible investment decisions for themselves and their families. Sensible investing is the cornerstone of this course, ideal for anyone looking to make money without incurring significant losses.
7. Financial Management
This course is offered by the University of Illinois, and it covers all the subsets of investment, whether it is accounting, investments, or understanding various institutions from a financial perspective.
You can also understand how to incorporate risk into your financial decision-making.
This will also help you to understand how certain companies make their financial investment decisions, like venture capital investments. Once you have completed this course you will gain a certification, although you will have to check with your employer beforehand to see whether this will be accepted.
8. Certificate In Investment Management
If you want to understand the investment market and how financial strategies work, then you won’t go far wrong with this course. This will help to get a handle on diverse perspectives as well as gain some valuable industry experience.
This course is geared towards helping people gain a career in investment marketing, so it comes with plenty of real-world skills that you can start applying to your own finances or the finances of a client. You will learn the client management life cycle and new practical skills. This is also a great course to get you ready for the world of upper finance.
9. Data Science For Investment Professionals Specialization
The first great thing about this course is that it is free, and you can enroll with financial aid. This course is aimed at teaching you all about machine learning and how it factors into the investment process. This course integrates digital input with modern-day investment strategy.
This program uses Python, which is some of the best data-gathering software currently available. This also covers the ethical learning framework which governs a lot of these investment decisions and data modeling.
This course is a great precursor to a higher education degree in investment.
10. Finances For Non-Finance Professionals
This next course covers all the principles of financial investment, particularly corporate investment management. This covers growth, dividends, financial trading, borrowing, and maintaining good financial discipline.
This is designed to be an introductory course for people who want to understand the stock market or financial valuation. This sets the template for any higher education that you want to pursue. It is totally online and only takes you 14 hours to complete the course.
11. Bitcoin And Cryptocurrency Technologies
When it comes to investing, then you might be drawn to the more alternative methods of investment such as Bitcoin. It will cover the wider philosophy of Bitcoin as well as how it relates to existing fiat currencies and financial markets.
This will debunk a lot of cryptocurrency myths, allowing you to make more stable and better crypto investments. This course takes around 23 hours to complete and offers flexible learning patterns, although it does not offer a certificate upon completion.
12. Investment Risk Management
This is a very short course that will only take you 1 hour to complete. This is a basic introductory course that is free. It does specify that you will need to know some of the basics of financial management and have a basic grasp of financial risk concepts.
This teaches you how to calculate risk in finance using the Treynor ratio. This comes with graphs and spreadsheets that break down some of the core fundamentals of risk management. You don’t have to download this program to complete it.
13. The Global Financial Crisis
This course is taught by the prestigious Yale University and covers the events, policy decisions, and financial ramifications of the recent global financial crisis. This course is pretty in-depth, taking around 64 hours to complete.
This will give you a working knowledge of the investment global financial markets in crisis, which will give you useful skills when approaching similar situations, either on a micro or macro scale, in the future. This course is completely online and flexible, so you can incorporate it into your schedule.
14. Corporate Strategy
This next course doesn’t focus exclusively on investments, but it does cover corporate investment as part of its remit. This will include things such as deciding which businesses your business should invest in as well as making calculated financial decisions.
This course is aimed at complete beginners, so you won’t have to have that much knowledge of corporate investment or strategy before you sign up. This only takes 11 hours to complete, so it will be a great foundation course for higher learning.
15. Personal And Financial Family Planning
This is a great extracurricular study for anyone in charge of a household. Whether you are budgeting, investing on a low scale for a profit or looking to borrow money, this short course will give you all the skills you need to make sensible financial decisions.
This will only take you 15 hours to complete, so you can take an hour out of every evening to study and be able to complete the course in just over 2 weeks. This is completely online, which will help if you are running a busy household while trying to learn.
16. Investment Strategies And Portfolio Analysis
This is another free course that comes with hundreds of positive reviews. This will help you make sound financial decisions, whether it is for yourself or a larger company.
This will also help you evaluate portfolio performance, which is a key element of refining your investment plan.
This will cover all the recent investment trends to help you see how others are investing their money. This is a free course (you can also apply for financial aid to do this course) and it will take around 15 hours for you to complete.
17. Investment Management in an Evolving and Volatile World by HEC Paris and AXA Investment Managers
When it comes to understanding investment markets during turbulent times, then you’ll want help from some of the world’s best experts. This is where AXA Investment and HEC Paris are willing to give you everything you need to know about corporate finance.
This will help you determine what type of investor you are, looking at your objectives and strategies and highlighting potential weaknesses and how to improve them.
It is recommended that you have a basic knowledge of math and economics, although this is not essential for this professional asset management course.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why Should I Enroll In A Coursera Course?
There are plenty of reasons why you should take an online course such as Coursera. They are very flexible and will allow you to study throughout a hectic day job or family life.
You can also enroll in free courses that will supplement your learning for higher education or a better job.
How Much Will I Have To Pay For A Coursera Course?
The great thing about Coursera is that a lot of their courses can be accessed for free, although if you do not pay then you will not receive a certification at the end.
You can sign up for guided projects at $9.99 a month or get professional certificates for around $39.99 per month. There are also annual payment structures that are more expensive.
Do Employers Accept Coursera Certificates?
This will all depend on the company. Some employers will not accept Coursera certificates alone, they will more than likely accept them as part of a larger portfolio of certificates and qualifications.
We would recommend that you contact an employer before doing your Coursera course to see if they will accept whatever qualification you are planning on studying.
Conclusion
Investment is a tough subject to study and you might want to get some pre-studying done before you think about approaching a higher education degree. Coursera offers you a study plan that is flexible around your life, allowing you to learn at your own pace.
