Stock Markets & Funds
You know what a stock is. Now learn the machine that trades it — orders, indices, funds, and the fees quietly eating your lunch.
How the stock market actually works — exchanges and brokers, what happens when you place an order, market vs limit vs stop orders, the bid–ask spread, indices like the S&P 500, ETFs vs mutual funds vs index funds, fees and expense ratios, dividends, buybacks, splits, and IPOs. Worked numbers and interactive order books throughout.
Investing Basics told you what a stock is. This course shows you the machine — the exchanges, brokers, and clearinghouses that move your money, and the fund wrappers most people actually buy.
You’ll follow a real order from the tap on your phone to settled shares, and learn:
- The plumbing — exchanges, brokers, market makers, and who actually gets your money when you buy a share (spoiler: not the company).
- Orders — market, limit, and stop orders, the bid–ask spread, and how to avoid paying for your own impatience.
- Indices — what “the S&P 500 is up 1%” really measures, cap-weighting, and why the index is more top-heavy than its name suggests.
- Funds — ETFs vs mutual funds vs index funds, untangled for good.
- Fees — how a “tiny” 1% expense ratio compounds into a third of your wealth.
- Corporate actions — dividends, buybacks, splits, and why none of them are free money.
- IPOs — how companies go public, who wins the first-day pop, and who pays for it.
Finish this and investment-metrics — Sharpe ratios, drawdowns, alpha — stops being
abstract: you’ll know exactly what machine those numbers are measuring.
In this topic
- 1 How the Stock Market Actually Works The market's plumbing explained: what an exchange really does, why buying Apple sends the company nothing, how zero-commission brokers actually get paid, and the market makers, clearinghouses and regulators working backstage every time you tap 'buy'. 14 min
- 2 Placing an Order: Market, Limit, Stop What actually happens when you press Buy: why every stock has two prices (the bid–ask spread), why the 'last price' on your screen is old news, and how market, limit, stop and stop-limit orders trade off speed against price — with worked fills, slippage arithmetic, the gap-down trap, and a decision table for which order to use when. 16 min
- 3 Stock Indices: The Market's Scoreboards What the S&P 500, the Dow and the Nikkei actually are: measuring sticks, not things you buy. How cap-weighting works (with the arithmetic shown), why the Dow is the market's weird uncle, what an index committee quietly does, and why 'beating the market' really means beating an index — with an interactive weighting lab and a world tour of the big benchmarks. 14 min
- 4 Funds: ETFs, Mutual Funds, Index Funds The fund vehicle zoo, finally sorted out: what a fund mechanically is (pooled money, a manager, NAV — with the arithmetic), how mutual funds trade once a day at NAV while ETFs trade all day on an exchange, the authorized-participant arbitrage that pins an ETF's price to its NAV, why 'index fund' is a strategy and not a vehicle, the 2×2 grid that kills the confusion for good, and the honest evidence on why passive beat most active managers. 15 min
- 5 Fees and Expense Ratios: The Silent Killer What investing actually costs: the expense ratio and how it's skimmed invisibly from your fund, why a 'tiny' 1% fee compounds into a quarter of your final wealth, the full fee zoo (loads, 12b-1, turnover, spreads, advisory stacks), tracking difference vs sticker price, and why cost is the single best predictor of fund performance — with an interactive fee-drag simulator and worked numbers. 14 min
- 6 Dividends, Buybacks, and Splits How companies actually hand cash back to shareholders — dividends and the four dates that govern them, why the price drops on the ex-date (dividends are not free money), buybacks and the shrinking-share-count math, stock splits and reverse splits, total return vs price return, and the yield traps that snare dividend hunters — with worked numbers throughout. 14 min
- 7 IPOs and Listings: How Companies Go Public Where shares come from in the first place: who owns a company before it lists, the IPO machine step by step (underwriters, S-1, roadshow, book-building), primary vs secondary shares and dilution with worked numbers, the famous first-day pop and who actually pockets it, lock-ups, direct listings and SPACs compared honestly, and the evidence on whether buying IPOs is a good idea. 13 min
- 8 Final Exam: Stock Markets and Funds The graded final exam for Stock Markets and Funds: how exchanges and brokers work, order types, stock indices, mutual funds and ETFs, fees, dividends, buybacks and splits, and IPOs. 15 min
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