Learner Reviews & Feedback for Investment Management in an Evolving and Volatile World by HEC Paris and AXA Investment Managers by HEC Paris

There was absolutely no support from professors, most of the questions were not related to what the course has taught, especially the practical questions. Highly disappointed, by the overall course buildup. HEC Paris is a renowned educational Institution, I hope they take thorough and visible actions on this. A course is not just about earning certificates but learning something new, beyond what you know.

This course provides an excellent and comprehensive introduction to Investment Management in an impressive timescale. Learners can feel the tangible benefit and knowledge of this course once they have taken it. Honour Tracks are an excellent way to challenge yourself to the core if you don't have a statistical background or a strong financial knowledge. I genuinely enjoyed the lectures and how the materials were distributed in an equal and light manner starting from knowing investor's types, how to allocate asset portfolios, types of investment techniques, and ending with how to choose your fund manager. My favourite parts was the least likely: the exams and quizzes parts. These were built in a way that educates and challenge to resolve and learn, but designed to be impossible. A profound pedagogical approach even in the quizzes and honour tracks. This course deserves nothing but the best rating. I recommend wholeheartedly.

The course topics are great and I have to admit that I learned a lot during this course. The provided materials are good, but in my opinion sometimes not enough to be able to answer some of the questions in the tests. I had to spend some time researching the web to work out some of the problems. This per se is definitely not bad (it rather resembles real life), but all the other courses I have taken on Coursera and other platforms provide enough material and/or explanations to be able to work out all the problems without needing to look it up somewhere else.

The problem-solving issue also has to do, to a certain extent, with the formulation both of some questions and answers, which in some cases can be understood in different ways because a key word is missing or is wrong, usually prepositions. I am aware of the fact that the course creators are not native English speakers, but, when formulating questions and answers, they should take the time to check their formulations for grammar and correctness (I am sure there would be no mistakes if the course were in French :) ).

I posted a couple of questions on the forums and, sadly, never received an answer. Neither from fellow students, nor from the course moderators. Certainly the fellow students do not have any obligation to reply to questions, and I usually would say the course moderators don't either. But I am paying for this certificate and I therefore expect some kind of support. I am sure the course moderators are very busy and do not have time to be browsing around the question forums every day, but so am I. And taking a look in the forums once a week or so wouldn't hurt. Let me also point out, that the 2 questions I posted are THE ONLY questions in the forums, so it's not as if the moderators would be overwhelmed by the amount of questions posted. After my second question, I knew I was all by myself. From other courses I know that course moderators chime in once in a while on questions that have not been answered by fellow students and when no fellow student seems to be able to find or provide a correct answer.

The course is good, and you will learn a lot. If it weren't for the lack of support in the forums, I would give it 4 or maybe even 5 stars, depending on the responses I would receive.

Either way, enjoy the course!! I really did, even if it may not sound like it :)

The course was very helpful in getting to know the asset management industry at the macro level. Would love to go further in the study of this industry and how I can be a fit into the asset management industry. Advanced portfolio allocation, regression analysis, optimal allocation, factor analysis were very helpful in gaining valuable insights into how things are calculated in the asset management jobs, at least at a basic level. Overall, a must for anyone who would like insights into the asset management industry.

Very interesting course. I enjoyed it.

Taking the exams and the honor track is very recommended, it contains a real case.

I would appreciate it if there were more practical exercises for several real cases.

An update for the course to cover the 2020 market crash could add more value to the course.

With appreciation to all people who contributed to give this course, please when you read my critics do not get upset. My critics are constructive. Personally, I am a doctor in business administration and I have two masters, one in banking & finance and another one in accounting and tax and I completed this training with honors. The content of this course is fairly good. The issue, is that the contribution of the academic participant is not that great, he provide formulas with poor explanation of the parameters and the overall objective or the different use of the formulas. For example in module 4 he does not explain what does mean regression and the objective of regression in using multiple factors. On the other hand the contribution of the professionals from AXA I.M. is great.

This training has some errors in some answers but are not significant at all.

I recommend this training if you are average and above in mathematics (it is not difficult). You have to understand certain used metrics in statistics such as variance, covariance, correlation etc.

The advantage of this training: you will understand all the details related to investment management, starting from the objectives of different types of investors, passing by the different asset classes and the risks impacting the asset allocation for optimised portfolio, until explaining the techniques or criteria used to select a fund manager.

Overall, I recommend this course.

The videos did cover the basic theories behind all the methods for portfolio management however they were just basic theories with no explanation on how to practically implement them and then asking us who only understand the theories from the videos to suddenly try to solve the calculation quizzes especially those excel calculations without any practice on how to implement them beforehand. Besides the videos only showed the formulas with no example at all! Very disappointed with the course... This course is not recommended for those who have zero or little experience in the field..

Very basic lessons. Maybe can be good for very beginners.

les examens devrait etre disponible en francais aussi

T​he course is clearly split into two components: theory and practice.

- The theoretical part is presented with well-constructed videoas, well-paced material and excellent quality of presentations (video, audio, on-screen labelling, etc.) as well as an interesting cast of professionals. -  The practical part is done mostly through hands-on manipulation of data via MS Excel, which is an excellent choice of learning vehicle and provides a sense of real-world application.

​RaBewaather unfortunately, however, the link between theory and practice is often lost and the student must spend some time investigating and deducing on his/her own information that has not been covered. This is interesting from a pedagogic standpoint but can also be frustrating for those not having some specific background. Beware in particular of Excel formulas across different languages.

Nevertheless, overall the course is quite complete and the effort is rewarding.

It is a great idea to combine Academia and Industry professionals in one course.

This MOOC is for individuals who wish to gain the basic mathematical understanding of modern portfolio theory and capital asset pricing model.

Many things are rapidly changing in the world of Finance with Python being the main tool and Machine Learning being the main approach. Nonetheless, the knowledge of the theories that dominated financial thought for several decades is a definite advantage for you.

If you take this course, consider the Honours track which will enable you to gain valuable technical skills by working in Excel as well as real-world practical experience of investment analysis.

If you know nothing about statistics, calculus or financial markets, be prepared to invest some team in research. Supporting materials with several derivations and external links are provided.

This is a fantastic course about the basics of Investment Management. While it is an introductory course, it does not shy away from some basic maths and includes some very interesting and instructive spreadsheet exercises. The quality of the presentations, subtitles and slides is outstanding. The quizzes are challenging but always within the content of the lectures. I strongly recommend this course to anybody interested in investment management who is not afraid of some basic maths. Moreover, I strongly encourage the team, that organised this MOOC, to create more specialized and in depth courses, maybe even a Specialization.

Excellent, interactif et concret, ce cours est un complément intéressant des enseignements que j'ai personnellement reçu dans mon école (de commerce).

Merci au personnes qui ont pris le temps d’élaborer le cours et les exercices

Timothé LETRILLIART

Cours très complet et inspirant. Précis dans les explications, avec des exercices bien ciblé et qui permettent directement de voir si vous avez assimilé les cours. Merci pour le travail des professeurs

A course that has taught me more about the "Quantitative Methods" of calculations of Optimal Asset Allocation, Regression and Descriptive Statistics regarding Portfolio management techniques.

Definitely rigorous and challenging. A great course to continue you maturation in investment management and portfolio analysis. Great resources and materials. Highly recommend this course.

not really an dvanced course but good for beginners

OK, you can learn a few things getting into this course and it's still available for free on the platform so thanks for that!

However and most of all, you can sense that this is more of an advertising campaign for AXA IM than an investment course per se... During the 4 modules, you're basically repeated over and over again that Active Management (ie. Investment Managers) tend to overperform and that you should have one manager.

There's even the overall 1st part of Module 4 that is dedicated on how to select a manager...

There are some great insight related to portfolio allocation but not much explanations. A major point that I would have liked to hear about is how to come up with the risk aversion criteria... Many parts of the course relate to external videos available on Youtube.

If you're going to advertise on such a platform as Coursera please don't make it too much about the advertising and more about learning... (for example: Melbourne University Specialization).

An excellent and an outstanding course. In 4 weeks, you go through a lot of material. The Honors mode in this course, is worth it. Do the Honors - dont miss it.

Professor Hugues Langlois of HEC Paris and others from AXA Investment Managers have done a great job in explaining the concepts and mathematical formulas.

I recommend this course to investment managers, bankers and students who are interested to know more about Investment Management as a subject and a field you may want to work in.

This Course is very complete and concise with very interestering extra materials and website links for those who are interested. It gave me a deep understanding of the asset management industry and was a great help for me when I started my internship as portfolio manager assistant. I can say without reserve that it is one of the best course I have taken.

Thank you HEC and AXA IM for this wonderful online course.

In some points I found it quite applied compared to just another milestone of theory. The excel spreadsheets were insightful and really helpful to understand the concepts. I would be keen to see a Part-2 course, where more advanced concepts are introduced, such as asymmetrical returns, alternative assets more stuff on tail risks with applications on Excel.

I am an Economics and Business Economics student and this course really contributed to my knowledge about investment and investments management. The course was well-structered in a way that you also had to discover certain aspects yourself which was challenging, thus good. I would certainly recommend this course.

Very good insights over investment management principles and asset management sector, with both academic and real world aspects. Perfect reminder for people who have not practised for a long time and good introduction for ones who are new in the domain. Thanks to HEC and AXA IM for this

The course offers a comprehensive introduction to the world of Investment Management in an accesible and engaging manner. I would recommend the course to anyone interested in getting a primer of the Investment Management industry and its most used portfolio analysis tools.

I am really enjoying the course. A lot more practical than other courses I have taken. It would be good to have an option to submit assignments and purchase the certificate at the end rather than the current way. Hope Courser will take this into consideration.