Best Online Investing Courses

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Contributor, Benzinga
August 1, 2023

Unfortunately, going back to school isn’t an option for everyone. Whether you’re raising a family, don’t have the money for tuition, or simply don’t have time to take a break from your career to continue your education, there are so many reasons why you may not want to enroll in college again. Sure, great courses are out there, but where can you find them? That leads us to the best online investing courses.

Thankfully, there is an alternative—online investment courses are affordable, easily accessible, and allow you to learn to invest in your own time and within the bounds of your schedule. We’ve reviewed some of the best online investing courses you can enroll in today, and we’ve included some additional tips on how to identify a great course.

Quick Look: The Best Online Investing Courses

The Best Online Investing Courses

Based on the criteria above, here are the top online investing courses. Be sure to check out prices/tuition, any additional books you may need, and any special required equipment before you enroll.

1. How to Trade Stocks

Who’s it for? Beginning traders
Price: $47

Let the experts at Benzinga prep you to trade stocks in just 7 modules with its How to Trade Stocks online course. You'll learn how to read charts and make winning trades in the market through simple, actionable strategies.

The course will take you through the process of how to trade stocks from start to finish. Get started by learning why trading could be right for you, and move on to developing your personal strategy and trading plan. You'll be prepared to meet the market after you learn how to choose a broker, and use technicals , indicators and price studies.

Master investing in the stock market with lessons from a top instructor and lead trader.

2. Bullseye Trades With Jeff Bishop

Who’s it for?: Anyone

Price: $139 per year

Learning how to trade options can be treacherous as the market is complex and each new trade has its own pitfalls, pros and cons. When you sign up for the Bullseye Trades service from Jeff Bishop at RagingBull, you’re learning from a 20-year veteran of the industry who offers insight, alerts and explanations of how the options market can benefit you. 

With the Bullseye Trades service, you get:

  • A weekly options alert when the market opens on Monday
  • Live access to the walkthrough of that trade alert
  • The desired entry price
  • Other options contracts Jeff has his eye on
  • Target and stop loss plans for each trade
  • Access to the Launchpad Training Series where you can review dozens of videos on a range of important trading topics

With the Launchpad Series, you can learn:

  • The basics of technical analysis
  • Options basics
  • Momentum stock information
  • How to trade large cap stocks and more

Just check out the page and see some recent winners, join at any time and make the most of your options investments.

3. One Core Program by Asia Forex Mentor

Who it’s for: Anyone

Price: $997

The One Core Program was created to help traders invest in foreign currency, but it is a program that you can apply to any asset. Managed by Ezekiel Chew, the One Core Program from Asia Forex Mentor teaches you how to think about investing in a new way.

Consider this “paradigm shift” a re-education in trading. Anyone can use the One Core Program to learn about investing, broadening their horizons or simply learning the basics.

One of the modules is known as the “Road to Millions” which helps you think about building wealth and increasing your net worth. Yes, it would be lovely to change careers and work as a trader, but how will you plan for the future? Asia Forex Mentor helps you change your focus, plan for the future and see the market in a new light.

4. Premium Package From Wall Street Prep

Who’s it for? Intermediate to Advanced Financial Professionals

Price: $499; other courses vary in price; free content is available

When you use Wall Street Prep, you gain access to a massive range of courses that couver a wide array of topics in the financial sector, starting with financial modeling and valuation. Wall Street Prep is designed to help intermediate and advanced students, teaching them every aspect of investment banking.

The Premium Package from Wall Street Prep is a good place to start, but you can also use other parts of the website to learn more about finance with boot camps, 1:1 coaching and additional courses that will teach you everything from bonds to analyzing financial reports. If you want to improve, brush up on your skills or learn a new aspect of the market, you can register with Wall Street Prep today.

5. The Real Investing Course from Real Vision

Who’s it for: New and curious investors

Price: $499 (use code Benzinga20 for 20% off)

Real Vision is a legitimate market education platform that offers you a wide range of products and services. You can visit Real Vision to find:

  • The Real Investing Course
  • Up-to-date information
  • Daily briefings
  • Pricing information
  • A new spin on financial market information

When you work with Real Vision, you can learn quite a lot about your portfolio, invest with more wisdom and seek out financial freedom. Getting all your investment information from one hub makes it easier to tend to your portfolio, and you can even take The Real Investing Course, learning in about 10 hours how to manage your investments.

6. The Investing and Trading Library from TD Ameritrade

Who’s it for? Investors of all levels
Price: Free

Available on brokerage platform and online. If you have an account open with TD Ameritrade and you haven’t been taking advantage of its extensive investment and trading resource library, you’re seriously missing out.

The investing powerhouse offers a wealth of easy-to-understand and comprehensive trading and investing education guides, how-to videos, and tutorials. Quizzes, vocabulary dictionaries and a mobile app that allows you to take your learning on-the-go.

You learn how to trade stock and move to more specific guidance on trading strategies, options, and forex trading, TD Ameritrade’s investing and the trading library is just as useful to the seasoned stock trader as it is for the novice who’s just opened his first IRA. The best part? It’s all completely free—all you’ll need is a current account with TD Ameritrade.

7. Zen Trading Strategies

Who’s it for? Beginners who want to create their own algorithms
Price: $597.00

The Zen Trading Strategies Masters Course in Automated Algorithmic Trading provides you with the exact processes, methods, beliefs, tools and automation to create the opportunity for financial and lifestyle freedom. You don't need any programming knowledge to get started.

Zen Trading believes the course will pay for itself exponentially. It shares some of the knowledge applied by some of the most successful traders of all time.

The course outlines how one trader took a $5,000 investment and turned it into more than $10 million. You'll learn how to create your own profitable algorithms with its plug-and-play tools, and you can see your trades directly on the Tradingview chart.

The course will show you how to backtest any trading idea and automated every detail of the process. You will be able to automate your trading the same. day.

As an extra special bonus, Zen Trading created an exclusive Masters Course In Automated Algorithmic Trading Telegram group for all of the traders in this program, so you'll get support while investing online and throughout your journey as a trader. 

Good Online Investing Courses Have:

All online investing courses were not created equal. Learning about stocks can be complicated, and you can’t learn how to become an investor unless you find the perfect class. While different investment classes will likely have a different area of focus, materials, and price, the best online investing courses all share these three common characteristics. 

  • Realistic claims: Before you enroll in online stock market trainingread the course description—it should list the skills or trading techniques you’ll learn by working your way through the course material. If investment courses include unrealistic claims (like you’ll be learning a “secret technique” investing insiders have been suppressing or the course guarantees that you’ll make a certain amount of money through trading), the course is more likely a get-rich-quick scheme than a reliable educational resource.

Remember, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

  • Comprehensive prerequisite list: Stock trading courses aren’t good for much if you can’t understand the material. Before you sign up for a course, check the prerequisite list; some courses will require students to have completed other specific classes, and some will list a set of basic skills that the student should have before signing up. Stock market classes often require more work than you might’ve thought. You can’t become Warren Buffett overnight.

This is not a money grab—these types of regulations are set into place to help students choose the right courses and get the most out of their time in the virtual classroom, so make sure you heed them.

Beware of stock market courses that offer to teach highly advanced or “little-known” investment strategies without a comprehensive list of prerequisites. Stock trading classes cannot teach you anything that the industry doesn’t know about. You, however, might be new to certain concepts, and you want to land in day trading classes that are on your level.If you’re a total beginner, sign up for an entry-level course first and move onto higher levels of instruction after completion.

  • Accessible instructor: We all run into snags while learning—even the most diligent of students will likely run into a segment or concept that’s a struggle. Because you’re taking an online course, you can’t walk to your professor’s office and knock on their door. This means it’s especially important to choose a course with an instructor that makes him or herself easily available.

Look for trading classes that offer one or more contact methods to speak to the instructor and send him or her an email introducing yourself and asking a question about the course. The best online instructors will be happy to meet you and share their insights—and you can gauge how easily accessible they are. Be patient, though, because a good online trading course puts quite a lot of demand on the instructor.

Find Your Investing Courses

It’s never too late to learn more about the ins and outs of investing. The key to learning on your own time is to set a schedule and choose stock courses that pique your interest. Don’t be afraid to test the waters with other teachers, investment professionals, and advisors. Find the best way to learn about investing for you. When you step outside of your comfort zone, you never know where your newfound knowledge may take you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q

What are some free investing courses?

A

Investing Basics and The Investing and Trading Library are great free courses.

Q

Do online investing courses make guarantees about your success?

A

If an online investing course makes claims about the amount of success you will have trading, it could be an indication that it’s not a credible course.

Q

Do you have access to teachers in an online investing course?

A

The best online investing courses make sure that you have access to your teachers when you need it.

About Sarah Horvath

Sarah is an expert in the insurance, investing for retirement and cryptocurrency space.