Connel Fullenkamp

With about $80 trillion of investment opportunities outside the United States, foreign investment can be a tempting option. Learn how the rules for diversifying into these investments are changing, and what you need to know to help ensure that your foreign investment decisions are as sound as possible.

Today's marketplace contains an amazing variety of mutual funds from which to choose. You can navigate this often-bewildering array of choices with confidence as you learn the key categories of differentiating them, including assets, goals, balance of growth vs. value, and diversification.

The cliché is that high risk brings the potential of high returns. But you learn in this insightful lecture that the cliché isn't true as you explore the two ways risks are classified and the very different expectation of potential rewards that come with each.

What role should three key cycles - price cycles in financial markets, the business cycle, and the interest rate or credit cycle - play in your investment decisions? Learn how these cycles work and the best way to protect yourself against their fluctuations.

Learn how to invest with skill and confidence so you can achieve your financial goals. Economist and Professor Connel Fullenkamp explains the fundamentals of investing to those new to the subject while broadening and deepening the knowledge of more experienced investors. Understanding Investments just may be the smartest investment you make.

Can anyone actually beat the performance of the stock market? Grasp what the Efficient Market Hypothesis and the debate over its validity can reveal about the answer - and how your own opinion can shape your investment strategy.

Although using leverage - borrowing a portion of the purchase price of an investment - can offer tempting rewards, the level of risk can be high. Explore how leverage works as you learn about margin requirements, short sales, and how leverage impacts both potential profits and potential losses.

Although bonds are often part of a buy-and-hold investment strategy, they can also be as actively traded as stocks, with just as great a risk. This lecture explains the descriptive terms, jargon, pricing, price-yield relationships, and standard practices you can encounter in the potentially confusing marketplace for bonds.

Do real estate and commodities belong in your portfolio? And if they do, what are the best instruments for putting them there? This lecture offers a realistic view of these questions, including a look at real estate investment trusts, or REITs, and commodity-focused ETFs.