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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Understanding Financial Markets by University of Geneva

4.8
stars
5,660 ratings

About the Course

In this course, you will learn what the main financial markets and their characteristics are as well as how they are linked to the economy. Our very diversified team of experts will start by teaching you how the price of stocks and bonds are computed and why they move while you will become increasingly aware of the notion of risk and why it matters when measuring an investment's performance. The focus will then move to less popular markets such as gold, emerging markets, real estate, hedge funds and private markets. These will be analyzed with an emphasis on their particular risks and return opportunities as well as how they can help in building efficient portfolios. Finally, the policies of central banks and their impact on financial markets will be presented to you along with the link between the economy and the price of financial assets. All along these different steps, experts from UBS, our corporate partner, will show you how the concepts you just acquired are effectively applied in a leading global bank. This focus on practicality means you will not only understand what is going on in global financial markets but also start to figure out how you can use them to achieve financial goals, be it a client's or your own. Course Director and main teaching contributor: Dr. Michel Girardin, Lecturer in Macro-Finance, University of Geneva...

Top reviews

MC

Jul 16, 2017

Mr. Michel is really an amazing teacher! His lectures are vivic and greatly attracts my attention. I hope to take more of his classes because I've Learned more than I nomally can do in a short class

RK

Oct 5, 2020

Thank you! Coursera for providing me the platform for boosting my knowledge in Financial Markets, as i have learned various financial parts in this subject and this will help me in my carrier too.

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51 - 75 of 1,187 Reviews for Understanding Financial Markets

By ARVIND S

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Mar 18, 2019

Excellent course to start learning portfolio management. Very high on concepts such as asset classes, alternative asset classes, hedge funds management, valuations, learning from clients, emerging markets etc. Lays a strong foundation for the other courses in the specialization. Lectures by UBS executives have a strong practical content. Would have liked it to be a little more quantitative, though.

By Mohamed A

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Oct 29, 2018

In fact, no matter how much I search my head for words that express my happiness I can not find those words, but I want to say that dreams are beautiful and achieved in reality is difficult but it is not impossible. Today I got a certificate bearing the name of this university which I have always wished to visit. And study in it and you all the appreciation and respect for your wonderful effort

By Katelyn M

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Mar 25, 2017

I really enjoyed this course. Each unit has many small videos so it is easy to break up. The lecturers attempt to make it interesting (though sometimes they think they're funnier than they are). Regardless, it covers quite a few topics in a way that's very easy to understand. Some of the quizzes do seem to require an advanced calculator, but I was able to use a simple one and kind of estimate.

By Batsuren B

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Oct 10, 2016

Examples that are provided in the course make it easy to understand and to apply in the real world. I have learned a lot about financial markets and theirs relationships with economy. Now, I have better fundamental understanding of investment decisions. It is one of the wonderful learning experiences I have had in Coursera. Thank you for bringing the specialization in more effective ways.

By Marco S

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May 1, 2016

The corse is very well organized. The concepts explained are basic, but foundamental to understand macro-investment decisions and they are explained in a very clear way: every concept is underpinned by a series of example from actual macroeconomic situations, which help to better grasps the theory.

Also the balance between the duration of the course and the theory explained is very good.

By Duane M

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Oct 1, 2020

Good overview of financial markets; I took this course as well as the Financial Markets course offered by Yale and taught by Robert Shiller. The Shiller/Yale course was more in-depth and I really like Prof. Shiller's teaching style, but this course from University of Geneva was helpful in its focus on a more global perspective, including discussions of currencies and emerging markets.

By Zacharias L

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Oct 25, 2016

I have gained an exceptional understanding of the basic financial markets and the key principles of investment practices. The feedback from UBS professionals, although very short, was quite enlightening and helpful. I am sure ready to continue with this specialization and I will recommend it to many of my friends who are eager to know more about how financial markets work.

By Nazareth A

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Jul 30, 2022

JUst amazing how well everything is explained the relationship between macro economic concepts and financial products and their valuation, behaviors, hence financial markets and how to asses them in the composition of investment porfolios. And adresses assets not always considered in investment courses such as real estate, the effect of currency and inflation and gold.

By Михаил _

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Sep 10, 2023

Thank you very much to the authors of this course, lecturers, everyone who was involved in its development. This is a very useful, capacious, information-rich course, a fundamental basis for studying financial markets. The lecturers tried to explain complicated topics as clearly as possible, and the tests are made in such a way that they make you doubt your knowledge!

By Timi A

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Jan 4, 2021

This course went above and beyond my expectation. While I would love to believe that I'm somewhat knowledgeable about the financial markets, I've been able to massively expand my understanding of the global economy, the risk-return relationship across developed and emerging markets, and some information about bonds and central banking policy which I never knew before.

By Ronald R

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Jul 22, 2020

Excellent introduction into the Financial Markets and the factors that impact bonds and equities, after completion of this course I am better equipped to make informed investment decisions,both the lecturers and guest speakers really provided good course content and shared educated market knowledge, I really look forward to the next course in this specialization.

By Catalina V

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Jun 11, 2020

Is good for the basics of someone that is just starting in the investment world, some terms like duration and the flattening and steepening weren't clear for me so I look on the internet, so maybe that would be my only advice, to be more clear with this.

Also, teach where to get this information, is good to know how to use information but where can I get it from.

By Paolo N

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Nov 6, 2018

The course presents ( not in depth ) many key concepts of the Financial Markets. I think it gave ma a good understanding on how the market works without going too deep int the material. If you are not familiar with some of the material you might look for a more in depth explanation somewhere else but all together was a very interesting course well presented.

By Lorenzo B

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Aug 3, 2022

Fantastic course!! All top professionals, but my special thanks to professor Michel Girardin for his examples using the hamburger and the water cups, etc. The videos were just the "right" duration, never boring, and content rich! This should be a required course for anyone interested in financial markets! Excellent work by the Univ. of Geneva and UBS.

By Mukul J

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May 2, 2020

This course is somewhat different from Financial Markets offered by Yale University. This course covered what that course missed. I'd recommend the learner to do both the courses to get a complete clearer picture of the financial markets. As far as this course is concerned, it covered some of the technicalities associated with the markets in a candid way.

By Felix C

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Jul 17, 2020

An excellent introduction to the basic mechanics of financial markets and institutions. Prerequisites are minimal - elementary math at the most. It provides a great panorama of current investment institutions, the basic concepts of wealth management and financial analysis of portfolios from a general qualitative point of view. Very much recommended.

By JIAN J

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May 21, 2017

This course introduces broad fundamentals about almost all categories of investments, including the impacts of macro economy. If you have very limited financial or economy knowledge, this course is just for you! Also, the lecturers and professors in this course present very clearly. One of my favorite part is the lecture given by UBS experts.

By Larry W I

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Sep 28, 2017

Excellent! it give you a basic idea of the financial market and also give you some main concepts in order to understand causes and consequences of the movements. If you are thinking in trade or you are already trading this course could give you a better comprehension of the conditions and characteristics that you should keep in mind.

By Deokumar G

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Oct 31, 2019

this course on understanding financial markets is a great refresher course for those students who are familiar with the NYSE and all of the various equities that can make a great investment portfolio! also, the lectures from the University of Geneva Professors are very straightforward, in plain English. - deokumar gandharry

By Prashant P

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Mar 21, 2019

Great online resources provided by the course, but this course is not for a complete beginner. I need to learn some of the concepts related to commerce before getting started with the actual course content. None the less, It provides a great insights related to different aspects of financial market and portfolio management.

By Aibar U

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Aug 3, 2021

It was one of the best online courses I've ever took! Thanks to a different approaches of professors & lecturers I finally understood many terms and processes in Financial Markets and overall investment management. Special thanks to Michel Girardin, hope to become your student in University of Geneva in the nearest future!

By Harsh M

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Jan 13, 2018

I am new in finance stream. So i don't know about so much. But There I learned so many thighs. How..... I am too surprised that and now i feel, I know.... Ya I know finance and I can also think my future in investment management. So thank you COURSERA team for giving me chance to learn by University Of Geneva's professor.

By Michele D f

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Apr 30, 2020

I have been astonished by the quality of this module. Having myself attended other financial modules over my student's career, I have been positively impressed by the clarity of the content and the ability of all the teaching staff. I am looking for attending the other modules of this specialization. Well done keep it up!

By CHU D

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Nov 2, 2017

I think this is most useful finance course for people not directly involved in finance industry. A lot of useful information, unlike typical university general education class which talks too much about theories but not practice. This course is very practice-oriented and the one of lecturer Michele is a very good teacher!

By Tereza T

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Apr 20, 2020

I appreciate quality of lectors who are not only experts in their respective fields but - especially those from univeristy - are also well qualified presenters and teachers.

The course has well proportion of overall and detail information to cover the topic for beginner but also to provide certain level of expertise