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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Global Financial Markets and Instruments by Rice University

4.5
stars
2,132 ratings

About the Course

Get a running start in the high-stakes world of financial investment! This first course is designed to help you become an informed investor by providing you with the essential concepts for long-term success in managing money. You’ll start by learning the role of financial markets and financial assets in a well-functioning economy. From there, you’ll learn about the wide range of financial instruments available in major asset classes, their features and valuations. You’ll explore how financial markets actually operate in the real world, focusing on how and where securities are traded and how various market types differ from one another in practice. You will also learn the basics of algorithmic trading, dark pools, buying on margin and short selling. By the end of the course, learners will be able to: • List and distinguish the different financial instruments available to an investor • Compare global financial markets • Explain the features of equity, debt, and derivative instruments • Define traditional and alternative asset classes • Discuss different trading venues and mechanics of securities trading • Discuss the current trends affecting today’s financial markets This course is designed to be accessible for students of all knowledge levels and gives you the actionable foundation needed to manage money in a post-crisis world. ________________________________________ WEEK 1 Module 1: Introduction & Review of Elementary Finance Tools This module introduces the Investment and Portfolio Management Specialization, which is made up of four courses. This module discusses how the first course, Global Financial Markets and Assets, is organized. It outlines the different stages of the investment management process, which guides the focus of the Specialization. It also reviews basic finance concepts and tools such as time value of money, computing returns, discounting and compounding. Topics covered include: • Familiarize with the organization of the class • Meet the professor and your peers • Explain the investment management process • Review elementary concepts in finance • Compute present value or future value of a single cash flow • Compute present value of future value of a stream of cash flows • Define an annuity or perpetuity • Apply time value of money tools to solve basic mortgage, loan or retirement problems ________________________________________ WEEK 2 Module 2: Financial system & financial assets: fixed income securities In this and the next two modules, we cover the key institutional features of financial markets and instruments. We ask the following questions: Why do financial markets exist? What role do they play? What are financial assets and how are they different than real assets? How does it all come together? Basically, this is where I hope you will get to see the big picture of the entire financial system and how it comes together. Module 2 focuses on fixed income securities. We'll get started with a review of basics of bond valuation. You will learn about short-term money market instruments, U.S. Treasury securities as well as corporate bonds. After module 2, you will be able to describe fixed income securities, be familiar with their institutional features, and identify their cash flows. Finally, you will learn how to value fixed income securities such as Treasury bills, zero-coupon or coupon-bonds and compute yields. Topics covered include: • Explain the roles of financial markets • Distinguish between real and financial assets • Define and explain money market instruments, zero-coupon and coupon- bonds and features • Identify the cash flows associated with fixed-income securities • Define and explain bond market features • List the different types of Treasury securities and explain pricing and quoting conventions • List and define other long-term debt instruments such as corporate bonds, mortgage-backed securities, sovereign debt • Find the value of a zero-coupon or coupon-bonds ________________________________________ WEEK 3 Module 3: Financial system & financial assets: equity securities and derivatives In Module 3, we continue our overview of financial markets and instruments. We next focus on two other major asset classes: equity securities and derivative instruments. You will learn about how equity differs from fixed income securities, the cash flows associated with stock and preferred stock and how to find the value of a share. You will also learn about option strategies. After completing module 3, you will be able to describe all major asset classes, including derivative instruments such as options, forwards and futures. You will be able to explain how these differ from each other and their payoffs. Topics covered include: • Distinguish between equities and fixed income securities • Define and explain the features of equity securities • Identify the cash flows associated with equity securities • Explain dividend discount model • Find the value of a share of common stock or preferred stock • Define and list different types of derivative securities • Explain option payoffs • Distinguish between a forward and futures contract • Explain forward and futures payoffs • Identify traditional and alternative asset classes ________________________________________ WEEK 4 Module 4: Organization of financial markets and securities trading In this module, we discuss how financial markets actually work. We will talk about different trading venues and the mechanics of securities trading. I will emphasize a lot of terminology and the latest trends in securities trading to familiarize you with the institutional workings of financial markets. After this module, you will be able to compare different trading venues, trading mechanisms, and be able to explain different types of orders, including transactions like margin buying and short- selling; you will be familiar with the language and terminology you need in order to become an informed practitioner of investments. Topics covered include • Explain the roles of corporations, households, government, and financial intermediaries in the financial system • Explain price discovery process • Define different type of orders • Distinguish between dealer vs. auction markets; different trading platforms • Explain margin buying and short-selling transactions • Understand the current trading environment such as algorithmic or high frequency trading, dark pools etc....

Top reviews

OY

Apr 17, 2022

The subject was simplified for beginners in the field of financial market instruments. Instructor explained all the details very clearly. Overall I had a very positive experience with the class

AI

Jun 17, 2020

Global Financial Markets and Instruments is a MUST. Excellent instruction! I truly appreciate the opportunity to receive this course from such a prestigious University - Rice University.

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376 - 400 of 421 Reviews for Global Financial Markets and Instruments

By Shelki R R

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Jul 22, 2022

sessions were informative but could have been more descriptive as the target audience are beginners.

By Mark C

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Dec 10, 2017

Video-embedded quiz lack solutions.

Some quiz are not well clearly stated.

By Alain O K

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Nov 2, 2020

more details are needed to make the course easy to learners

By Deleted A

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Nov 16, 2017

Instructor passionate but explanation of subjects shaky

By Norman O B

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Dec 9, 2016

Explanations and examples are not so good.

By Mushahid H

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Feb 1, 2022

nice experience

By nishant S

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Jun 19, 2024

GOOD

By Ernesto L M

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Oct 21, 2022

OK!

By Deleted A

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Jan 1, 2017

The course information is very interesting but covers the material too briefly. The topics were covered very quickly and not in very much depth. Quizzes often asked questions in a way that was not covered in the course material and were therefore quite difficult to figure out at times. I'm taking this course series to learn the material, not to be tricked of failed on a quiz. Also as this is a rather math-intensive subject, a more comprehensive review of the algebraic tools and skills required would be helpful. Lastly, there were many mistakes with grammar and spelling in the written portions. I know English isn't everyone's first language, but if we are paying for these educational materials then it doesn't look very professional for there to be glaring errors repeatedly throughout the material. It's not that difficult to have a native speaker proof-read before publishing (I would be happy to do this for you, any job openings?). Just some thoughts.

By Justin P K

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Jan 7, 2023

I wanted to take this course as a refresher of the basics as I look to expand my overall skills in financial analysis. This course was dreadful in my opinion. There are errors throughout the course (some of which are sloppily corrected), the overall verbiage is written in a way that is hard to follow, and the professor often glances over examples rather than actually explaining what is going on. Support materials are terrible and often out of date, one even required a paid subscription to another website to read. All in all I'd suggest spending a few hours reviewing TVM, Bond pricing formulas, and equity pricing formulas. You will be much less frustrated and come out further ahead than if you take this course.

On the bright side, I can say that I did get my refresher that I wanted. Unfortunately it came because I was frustrated with the course so I was constantly looking up information that should have been explained in the course.

By Richard v W

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May 19, 2020

Possibly the worst course I have done on Coursera.

There are errors in the videos, only some of which have been corrected by stopping the video and adding a voice over. At least one of these errors leads to an incorrect answer in one of the quiz questions.

The quiz questions themselves are often badly written and unclear. Where calculations are required it is clear that intermediate steps have been rounded but if you don't follow the same rounding as the question setter, you'll get a slightly different answer which Coursera will mark as wrong.

And they ask you to round the answer when what is really wanted is truncation.

They've even used the same question in 2 quizzes in Week 3 with different answers because they're rounded (truncated!) differently.

I'm a paying customer (I have a Coursera subscription) and expect better.

2 out of 5 Dr. O!

By Alice L

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Jan 7, 2022

It does provide a brief introduction to financial instrument and industry. However, the professor was making a lot of mistakes in the presentation, and the teaching was doubtful. For example, her definition for bid and ask is contradicting from all definitions on Google, and her illustration for maintenance margin and margin call were insufficient and contradicting with the logic of the answer key to the quizzes. The quizzes were also insufficient in explaining where certain number comes from, and are likely wrong in its calculation. Practicing questions are more important than understanding the basic concepts, and such problems are frustrating and disappointing.

By Benjamin B

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Jan 1, 2017

The material was interesting, but it lacked in sufficient practice resources for the mathematical portions. Also, instructor support / feedback to student questions was lacking. I found this course adequate if it was free, but not worth $79 for the amount of resources I was given to practice what we learned. This is highlighted by the fact that the weekly quizzes didn't show you the solution when you missed a question, so you were left guessing (instructors don't respond to student discussion questions) if the videos didn't address that specific question type.

By Lingfei S

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Jun 1, 2018

It is such a disappointment for this one. Maybe it just could not fit my aim.

It teaches more about calculation instead of how to invest. I think maybe the title was wrong, it is more in finance calculation instead of investment itself, or how to become a smart investor.

And the worst part, is even for the basic calculation part, there are errors..... Finance is such an elaborate job. I could not make the balance sheet balanced if I got one little mistake during the calculation or recording process.

Basically and logically, I lost my trust for this course.

By Rose C

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Mar 8, 2021

I was looking forward to refreshing my knowledge in this finance course. It seemed like mistakes are made, and instructions are pretty confusing with repetitiveness and contradicting information. I am so sorry. I love to complete this, but this class is definitely not for me. Perhaps I am not smart enough to detect the mistakes or errors the instructor could have made. If I am smart enough, what's the point of attending this course then? I'm frustrated and disappointed.

By efi l

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May 15, 2020

In my opinion, the course material can only be used as a quidance for further reading from sources and text books which you have to find because it is not an in depth course of the subject . A text book accompaning the material would be extremely helpful or even detailed handouts.

By Mark K

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Feb 16, 2021

The professor can do a better job of showing her work. She often skipped from the problem setup to the answer without solving for the respected variable first before substituting the variable for the number. Once this happened, I was lost.

By Leonard S

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Dec 21, 2020

outdated content based on 2015. professor makes calculation mistakes in videos. very difficult to follow the limited material and how it relates to the questions. video quiz questions are raised before the relevant content is presented

By Alex P

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May 17, 2020

While course provides a good general direction, lecture videos are full of mistakes, handout material is useless and you have to complete the missing material by searching through other online resources

By Jonathan M

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Jun 11, 2021

Inconsitent formulas where used in the solutions. These formulas were also not explained in the lectures which intentionally does not setup the students for success for those questions in the Quizes.

By Michael B

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May 27, 2020

So many equations left with "you can solve that" or not fully explained. Most of the teaching was done like a classroom that you dread with writing on the chalk board and so many miscalculations.

By Nathan T

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Jul 11, 2017

Brief highlight of topics, with no proper demonstration of formulae derivation. Examples are often brief and the practice questions are often much harder than the actual examples given.

By Wang J

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Mar 6, 2021

The handwriting of the instructor is not so good. It's not easy to follow. I think it'd be better if the instructor use Powerpoint slides and avoid a alot of handwriting.

By B. Y

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May 10, 2020

Quite a few types in lectures and quiz solutions. The typos discredit the lecturer in a sense even though she is actually very knowledgable.

By Peter B

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Apr 22, 2021

Disappointed with the fact some videos have mistakes. I didn't find the notes helpful and had to use the internet to pass the tests.