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

Great idea for a specialization and bravo to the professor for capitalizing on her affiliation with a top-tier research university while working there as a visiting professor. Unfortunately the course is riddled with errors in the very first week which is problematic for at least two reasons: 1) it may be reinforcing learning that is factually inaccurate, and 2) it adds unnecessary time and frustration to the process.

I have taken several excellent courses from Coursera that are well-designed, and while most courses can be forgiven for having a few have small errors, this is the first time I have noticed multiple errors--and a few major obvious errors--immediately in one course. After hardly an hour of working with this course I canceled the subscription and am requesting a refund for the first month's payment. I hope the creators of this course clean up the errors and inconsistencies or take the course offline.

One week in and the difficulty of the questions for the practice quiz's and tests is very significant compared to what was covered in the videos. The videos are very cut and try with basic examples and often skip over working through the problems. If I didn't have a finance background from University already, this course would be incredibly difficult.

no formulae's are explained properly

A very basic course, for beginners, but still not enough detail included to bring a beginner to a competent level on the subject areas covered. I had to watch supplemental videos on YouTube to "flesh out" the topics covered. Examples of this included the concept of liquidity, the course video suggested that the Bid, Ask spread indicated the liquidity of an asset class. Supplemental videos showed that one could not rely simply on the Bid, Ask spread, but also the volume of assets traded to determine how liquid a stock was. Another example was the introduction of intermediate options trading strategies for the first time on a quiz. The options profit and loss diagrams and rationale for their use were not covered in the lecture videos. Some of the optional supplemental materials were not available to me or difficult to access for me as I live outside of the United States. References to YouTube videos would have been easier to access. I ended up using YouTube videos covering the same topics instead of the recommended links.

I will fail because, despite submitting my assignment on time, they were not graded by my peers on time. Please notice that I took excellent grade on all quizzes and assignments. The entire peer grading system is a fraud. Professors and Teaching assistants are supposed to grade assignments, not students. I paid a fee and I deserve my assignments to be graded properly and on time. This is a fraud!

I love the ability to replay parts of the lectures but there is zero support for this program. Also the forum features are very limited so communication and accountability are non existent. I really needed this course too but I can't spend hours and hours trying to figure it all out on my own, too time consuming. I'll have to find another investor course somewhere else.

Useful course but of poor quality. Content is badly organized (students are often presented with concepts not yet introduced.) The lecturer tends to not give precise definitions of important concepts and sometimes misuses terminology (for example, use "return" to refers to "return on investment" at one place and to "internal rate of return" at another.)

Don't take the specialization. Quizzes are incorrect and won't let you progress!

Disappointed. There is a lot of the material for a basic introduction to global financial market and financial instruments is there. HOWEVER:

None of the formulas are derived. The formulas are often not intuitively explained or explained at all, and they are not even provided as a small handout. This forces the student to keep re-watching videos to find the relevant formula, since it's hard to remember because of the lack of intuition. It is fine not to go in depth, but at least provide summary handouts and further references.

Multiple errors. Whether it's sloppiness in the videos, the quizzes, or even better, the solutions for the quizzes.

For an introductory course it barely explains concepts, it mainly just posits them.

Good course to waste your money on, poorly designed homework, very superficial description of the topics, (especially the 2nd week materials).

The course content is a bit low on examples, making connections and explaining the 'why' - it is very to the point in therms of presenting concepts - but the professor is clear, concise and just the right difficulty.

Really good and exigent course.

The supposed time needed to complete the course is not correct. You will get to "invest" much more, but my advise is that, while hard, it deserves what it takes.

Good and succinct introduction to financial markets and instruments. Clear valuation formulas and intuitive explanation of treatment of cash-flows to define future and present values.

I think its a good introduction to financial markets but more from an academics perspective. We hardly had any guidance or reference to contemporary real markets. I wanted to learn about investment and I only learn how to calculate basic yields and returns. I turn on Bloomberg TV today and still do not understand any of the numbers and nomenclature they show or make reference to....

In conclusion I think the course is good from an academic standpoint but not for real life interaction with finance markets and news.

Pretty basic. Needed external sources to supplement study. The course has quite short videos and could be a lot more informative.

Despite being focused on US and EUROPE markets what, particulary, made the compreension of the course a bit harder considering i'm from latin america, Brazil; the course allowed me to have a great approach on global markets and financial instruments from the rest of the world. Knowing this kind of stuff allows me to agregate value to my clients negotiations in terms of insurance risk.

This course is my first course on Coursera and I must say that the content is very quality based and insightful. It is better than any other platform course. I would like to thank the faculty to explain financial market in a very practical way.

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.

Very good knowledge of how to use the various financial securities which helps in terms of being a good investor / trader. Tutor is amazing at explaining every bit of the subject.

Great online training course, helping participants to understand foundations of financial markets and instruments, helping me to grow and gain new financial capabiliites.

Excellent course. Well structured and more importantly kept it clear, simple and to the points. Dr. Arzu has done full justice in delivering the course. Appreciate it.

Good overall course to go over present/future value, rates of return, stocks, bonds, alternative investments, etc. More math than i was expecting. Good course.

Good review of simple financial material. Not an in-depth review, but a good refresher of modules that you would have seen in your MS Finance or MBA Finance.

Great course to get an introduction to the workings of the financial market. Designed in a way that makes it possible for anyone to comprehend the matter.

Short and well elaborated course! Need for further do your own research for maximum benefit!