Best Investing Courses for November 2024

Why You Should Trust Us

Investopedia collected 13 criteria that are critical to investors, from 18 online investing courses. We used this data to review each platform for course structure, costs, available amenities, and other key features to provide unbiased, comprehensive reviews to ensure our readers make the right decision for their investing needs. Investopedia launched in 1999 and has been helping readers find the best online investing courses since 2020.

Guide to Choosing the Best Investing Courses

Your Goals and Investing Style

Investing courses certainly do not have the same value for all investors. Just as investors have different goals and investing styles, online learners have a variety of objectives. That’s why it is important for someone who wants a good investing education to clearly define their investment goals. 

Financial Goals 

Whether it is preparing for a career, saving for retirement, attaining a particular net worth, or building a legacy for future generations, the education you need is characterized by the primary goal you have. When selecting which courses are best for you, consider what you want the material to accomplish. You should also consider what it is worth to you in money and time so that you can make selections that fit with the resources available to you.

Investing and Trading Styles

All of the education in this review is tailored to various investing styles, primarily with the goal of building career knowledge and skills or planning for retirement. None of these courses feature education on short-term trading—which is different from long-term investing. It is useful for you to distinguish what topics of investing you want help on in your education. It makes a difference whether you want to know about value investing, growth investing, momentum investing, or something else. What assets you want to trade also makes a difference: Do you want to invest in stocks, options, futures, forex, or cryptocurrency?

Online courses can be divided into two groups: those that seek to inform you and those courses that also help you gain experience through practice. Courses that are strictly lecture-oriented are great for delivering information you don’t have and maybe didn’t know to ask about. If that’s all you need, this kind of course fits perfectly. 

By contrast, courses that allow for simulated environments encourage students to try the things they are learning. These are courses specifically designed to help build skills. That’s where defining your goals comes into play. Consider the following list of course types, and see which kind meets your goals.

• Online presentations: Information-based, with no attempt at skill transfer
• Online course with practice tools: Designed specifically to help you build skills
• Investor communities: Typically help with career building via networking, but can also help deepen understanding of concepts through exchanging information with fellow students
• Investor coaching or mentorship: Designed to help you build a custom-selected skill set at an accelerated pace

Types of Investing Courses

• In-person seminars: Often information-based and usually designed to help you select a customized collection of additional courses for yourself
• Self-study programs: Designed to be flexible and often include a skill-building component, but the learning must be self-motivated to achieve it

Factors to Consider When Choosing an Investing Course 

Depending on what kind of courses you need to fit your goals (information-based courses or skill-building courses) you can begin to select them based on additional criteria such as the following:

• Cost: Paying anything under $100 for more than one hour of education is considered low-cost, and more expensive courses need to be evaluated for how much benefit they offer.
• Discounts and promotions: Many course providers offer Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals that are worth considering.
• Reviews: You have lots of choices; don’t settle for something poorly reviewed in either quantity or quality.
• Comprehensive curriculum: The more comprehensive the course, the more time it takes, so you have to evaluate a tradeoff between comprehensive content and focused skill-building tools. 
• Expert instruction: This is highly valuable so long as you don’t pay too much for it. 
• Interactive learning tools: This is vital when you want to build skills, but not a high priority if you just need good information.
• Real-world application: This is also useful for skill-building courses, but can improve your retention in information-based courses.
• Support and community: This element can greatly improve your motivation to take action, which can be very important for skill-building courses,

How to Avoid Investing Courses Scams 

This industry is rife with scams. Organizations developing material to market coursework designed to help people acquire great wealth rapidly should naturally be met with skepticism. The telltale sign of a scam appears when the information you are reading appears to be designed to stir emotions in the reader, more than it seeks to inform the reader. Scams are built to sell people based on strong emotion, not boring facts. If you are suspicious that what you are evaluating might be a scam, notice whether the description includes the following elements.

• Alluring narrative: Does the material seem crafted as an engaging story or more like a list of benefits and costs?
• Lengthy and meandering narrative: Educational material that requires you to read material for 15 minutes or longer should make you suspicious. That’s how long it takes for you to build enough curiosity to consider a purchase.
• Non-verifiable information: If you can’t find third-party reviews, or the only confirmation you have comes from carefully crafted testimonials, you might be at a disadvantage in properly evaluating the online coursework. It’s best to move on from these.

What Features Should a Good Investing Course Have?

Worthwhile investing courses should give you the ability to either be well-informed or moderately skilled by the time you complete the course. Here are additional characteristics to look for:

• Credibility (reputable institutions or instructors)
• Interactivity (engaging materials and activities)
• Flexibility (courses that fit your lifestyle and schedule)

Companies We Reviewed

We researched and reviewed 18 investing course platforms to find the best companies you see in the list above. Below is the full list of companies we researched, along with links to individual company reviews to help you learn more before making a decision:

eToro – Crypto for Beginners, Coursera – Yale Financial Markets, IBD – Foundations of Investing Online Course, Udemy – The Complete Cryptocurrency Course, Udemy – The Complete Cryptocurrency Investing Course, Coursera – Cryptocurrency and Blockchain: An Introduction to Digital Currencies, Udemy – The Complete Guide to Multifamily Real Estate Investing, Udemy – Commercial Real Estate Investing 101, Roofstock – Master the Wealth-Building Power of Real Estate, Wharton – Real Estate Investing and Analysis Certificate Program, Clever Girl Finance – Create a Plan for Your Future Self Through Investing, Analyst Academy – Behind the Balance Sheet, University of Central Florida – Stocks, Bonds, and Investing: Oh, My!, Kidvestors, Outschool – The World of Investing, Juni – Money-Minded: Investing in the Stock Market, Clever Girl Finance – How Investing Works, Morningstar – Investing Classroom

How We Chose the Best Investing Courses

Investopedia is dedicated to providing investors with unbiased, comprehensive reviews and ratings of investing courses. Our review of the best online investing courses is the result of a thorough evaluation of five categories and 13 criteria that are critical to readers choosing the right investing course. We used this data to develop a comprehensive rubric for evaluating a total of 18 online investing courses based on their training style, lesson structure, available amenities, and other features to help our readers make the right decision for their needs.

Our team of subject matter experts and data collectors developed quantitative weights to score each company based on a set of categories that are important to students taking online investing courses. The following category weights were used to rate each course: 

• Course Structure and Delivery: 30.00%
• Resources and Materials: 30.00%
• Pricing and Packages: 25.00%
• Customer Support: 6.00%
• Certification and Credentials: 9.00%