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Introducing the financial markets - free online course

Course overview

Description

Ideal as a first step into the world of trading, this course takes you on a tour of the financial markets – including shares, indices, forex and commodities – equipping you with the essentials every trader needs to know.

You’ll discover how each market operates, what drives it, and most importantly how you might capitalise on its movements.

But before that, we’ll answer the most fundamental question of all: what is financial trading, and why would you want to do it?

Time

85 min

Level

Beginner

Benefits

Short, easy-to-digest lessons
Practical, interactive exercises
Engaging videos and graphics
Free demo account for practising your new skills
Quiz to check your understanding

Example lesson: understanding dividends

In this course you’ll find exercises, charts and illustrations designed to help you understand why and what people trade. To give you a flavour of what to expect, here’s an extract explaining how dividends work:

Dividends

A key advantage to investing in shares is the potential for dividends.

A dividend is an amount of money paid to shareholders, representing a portion of the company's profits.


When a company makes a profit, the management get to decide how much to put back into the business and how much to pay to the shareholders as a dividend.

Dividends can compensate for a share price that isn't moving much, giving shareholders an income instead. Companies that are expanding rapidly usually don't offer dividends, choosing instead to reinvest all their profits to sustain growth. The reward for shareholders in this case is a higher expected share price in the long run.