What should you look for in an online investing course?

Start here as a new investor.

Here are some key features of worthwhile online investing courses that will help you improve your equity portfolio performance.

Practitioner taught

The person teaching you should know how to invest in practice, and preferably in a professional environment so that you will learn the best methods to analyze stocks and build your portfolio.

Someone with the right experience and credibility

The teacher should have at least 15 years of experience and preferably more – someone with less could have gone through the 2020s without experiencing the Global Financial Crisis and that could limit their experience and understanding. 

Generally speaking, the more experience the better. The less experience your instructor has, the fewer mistakes they will have made for you to learn from. Be careful of people who have had lots of jobs – 5 jobs in 10 years might be a sign that they weren’t competent.

Learning pace

Cohort-based courses can be very effective and benefit you from being forced to learn a lot in a short time. But there is only so much ground they can cover and they are best suited to a narrow aspect of investing. 

For example, a cohort-based course would be great if you wanted to learn about stock screening as it’s a small enough subject to cover in a limited period. But be careful of any such course which sounds too wide-ranging, especially if lecture time is limited.

The advantages of self-paced courses include:

  1. They tend to be a cheaper option (although a good course will require a high level of upfront investment)

  2. You are not tied to a fixed tuition schedule

  3. You can cover difficult topics a second time

Lifetime access

Many courses offer you only 12 months of access. This is too short. Something might change in your personal circumstances, preventing you from devoting enough time, and you don’t want to have to pay twice. You may want to refer back to the material at a future date – if you encounter a problem in your portfolio, you will want to refer back to the study materials.

To be fair, the organisers want to prevent you from sharing the content with a friend and they have a legitimate right to get paid for that. Even so, many course producers will offer lifetime access and will also update the material so it can be a form of continuous learning. If not, look for 24 months access.

Mixed media

It’s important that the course offers exercises so you can practise. Good courses will not only offer videos, they will include text on the video page summarising what you are going to learn and ask you quiz questions to test that understanding. 

The best courses will refer you to appropriate podcasts or videos. Some even offer custom-created audio downloads. All courses should give you reading material, sometimes the best content sourced from other experts, in addition to their own materials. Some courses include a compendium of best resources on the subject, in video, audio and PDF forms and will offer further content for you to consume to round out your education. Look for that type of approach, as it indicates a philosophy which is student-oriented.

Feedback from the Tutor

It’s essential in all courses that you are able to ask the author or tutor questions if you don’t understand a topic. It doesn’t matter whether this is done by regular webinars, in a community or simply via email. But you should have the facility to ask questions.

Webinars with the Course Author

Some course authors organise webinars for students so they can interact with the teacher just as in a university setting. Obviously these will not be a daily event but bi-weekly or monthly should be sufficient. Having the opportunity to ask questions in this manner is a valuable addition to the course content.

These will be an integral part of a cohort-based course but ask if there will be opportunities to join future cohorts at no cost – that can enable you to cover difficult topics a second time. 

Peer-to-Peer Community

Some courses include a peer-to-peer community where you can hang out virtually with other course participants and share stock ideas and ask questions. The course questions should be answered by the teacher but you may have other questions. You may want to ask what’s the best software for research or how do you do something in Excel? These questions may not be part of the course but fellow students may be able to assist. We know of one community where groups even get together to research stock ideas and discuss their pros and cons.

Fairly Priced

We have heard of some ridiculous prices being charged for high-quality courses. Anything costing over $10,000 is too high, and we would question anything over $5,000 which has been our ceiling. Beware of claims to guarantee you a job in a fund if you are good enough. We would be wary of any course which costs too much and of offers that sound too good to be true – they usually are. 

At the other extreme, don’t buy a cheap course. Anything for $99 is unlikely to add much value beyond what you can get from a book. It takes a lot of time to develop a good online course and the creator should have a high hourly rate – you want to have someone highly skilled. A cheap course is unlikely to be a good investment.

What’s the right price, is a difficult question. We have seen decent courses for $500, focused on a particular aspect, and for an in-depth course serving a narrow market, we have paid $5,000. It was a cohort-based course and lasted 3 months and turned out to be a good investment, but there was no money-back option.

Guarantee

Not every course is guaranteed and we understand why course creators don’t like to offer a guarantee as someone can use the content and then ask for their money back. But a 10 or 30-day money-back guarantee is a sure sign that the creator is confident about the quality of the content. We wouldn’t necessarily shy away from a course without a guarantee but having one is a sure sign of a quality course. 

Conclusions

These are just a few pointers as to the things to look for in an online investing course. We haven’t mentioned things like platforms as the difference between Thinkific, Learnworlds and Teachable is minimal and the design and quality of the content are much bigger factors in your success. 

Some courses are via drip which ensures that you have a steady flow of content and help with completion achievement rates, but they don’t suit everyone – you may have a week off or a week in bed when you want to race through material. 

If you feel uncomfortable about completing the course, the answer is probably not to buy it. Similarly, some courses offer instalment plans and a cancellation option. That’s a comfort, but if you are doubtful about completing the course, be doubtful about starting it – there is little point in doing 3 months of a 6-month programme and giving up, and you would be best advised not to start or take a different option.

A very good compromise, which many people overlook, is Masterclass. You don’t get direct tuition in how to calculate the EV/EBITDA ratio, but you get a year’s worth of all you can eat from some great investors and business leaders. It’s a bit like a curated YouTube on steroids but well worth a look.

Good luck, don’t give up!