Complete Tutorial | Canadian Securities Course l Volume 1

Understand capital as financial wealth and assets—tangible and intangible—owned by individuals, firms, and governments; it is scarce, mobile, and sensitive to monetary and fiscal policy, with direct and indirect investment.

Learn an overview of financial securities, including fixed income, bonds and debentures, money market, equity with common and preferred shares, and open and closed end investment funds and other securities.

Explore how primary markets create and sell new securities like mutual fund shares, and how secondary markets trade existing stocks and bonds through auctions, dealer markets, otc, and ats.

Compare seven Canadian exchanges, including TSX, TSX Venture, TSX Alpha, Montreal Exchange, CSE, IconX Canada, and Neo, and learn their focus on equities, derivatives, and natural gas and electricity trading.

Explore how provincial securities commissions regulate markets and coordinate via the CSA to protect investors, while IIROC, MFDA, and OSFI oversee mutual funds, investment dealers, and federally regulated institutions.

Compare CIPF, MFDA IPC, CDIC, and provincial insurance corporations, and learn how they protect cash, securities, and deposits in insolvency, with per account and per client coverage limits.

Understand KYC, KYP, and suitability by measuring the client's personal and financial conditions, time horizon, and risk tolerance and capacity, then match investment products to their needs.

Learn how client-focused reforms (CFR) place the client's best interest first, update KYC data, address conflicts of interest, and expand relationship disclosure for proper suitability.

Learn how investors resolve disputes through direct communication, arbitration (binding, faster, up to 500k unless agreed), and OBSI (non-binding recommendations with public reporting if rejected) to seek remediation.

Explore ethical standards in financial markets, including misrepresentation, market manipulation, high pressure sales, and front running, plus prohibited practices and dncl/ncl rules to protect investors.

Explore how the economy links production and consumption of goods and services with money flows among individuals, businesses, government, and how microeconomics and macroeconomics address prices, unemployment, inflation, and taxation.

Explore how supply and demand determine prices, quantities, and equilibrium, illustrated by the iPhone 16 Pro Max example and the laws of demand and supply.

Learn how GDP measures economic health by adding consumption, investment, government spending, and net exports using the formula GDP = C + I + G + X − M.

Trace the five phases of the business cycle: trough, recovery, expansion, peak, contraction, and see how GDP, inflation, interest rates, and employment move with demand and supply.

Learn how leading, coincident, and lagging indicators reveal future and past economic health. Explore examples like money supply, stock prices, manufacturing new orders, GDP, unemployment, inflation, and personal income.

Analyze the Canadian labor market by defining the working age population and the labor force, and exploring the participation rate and the unemployment rate.

Explore the four types of unemployment—cyclical, seasonal, frictional, and structural—and how downturns, seasonal demand, normal labor turnover, and skill mismatches shape unemployment, with practical examples.

Explore how interest rates set the borrowing cost and lending returns, shaping mortgages, saving, and inflation, driven by demand and supply, Bank of Canada actions, and default risk.

Learn how inflation reduces purchasing power as prices rise, measured by CPI in Canada. See how positive and negative output gaps drive demand-pull and cost-push inflation.

Explain deflation and disinflation, showing how falling prices harm profits, reduce spending, raise unemployment, and slow the economy, while disinflation signals cooling inflation without price declines.

Compare nominal values with inflation-adjusted real values to reveal true purchasing power, then assess real GDP growth, real interest rate, and real return after inflation.

Explore how the balance of payments tracks a country's global transactions, revealing its current, financial, and capital accounts, and showing surplus or deficit conditions that influence CAD and economic strength.

Explore how exchange rates determine how much CAD you need to buy USD, and how appreciation or depreciation, commodities, inflation, rates, trade balance, and political stability move a currency.

Explore fiscal policy as the use of government spending and taxes to stabilize the economy, illustrated by the Covid-19 response and the ripple effect, with Keynesian and monetarist views.

Explore how the Bank of Canada, the country's central bank, uses monetary policy and interest rates to control inflation, support financial stability, and manage currency and government funds.

Learn how the Bank of Canada uses monetary policy to manage money supply and interest rates. Explore expansionary and contractionary tools like overnight rate changes, open market operations, and redeposits.

Compare monetary policy and fiscal policy, showing the Bank of Canada controls money supply and rates to maintain price stability, while government spending and taxation influence the economy.

Learn how fixed income securities like bonds and treasury bills borrow money from investors, providing interest and principal repayment, and terms like coupon, par value, maturity, discount or premium.

Explore the full taxonomy of fixed income securities, from government and corporate bonds to collateral and structure types, including T-bills, GIC, real return bonds, and high yield bonds.

Explore convertible bonds, a hybrid security offering fixed income with a conversion privilege to shares at a fixed conversion price, plus the callable nature and dilution protection.

Explore protective provisions, bond covenants that safeguard investors by limiting risk, including security clauses, negative pledge, debt and dividend tests, sinking and purchase funds, and asset or merger clause.

Money market securities are short-term, low-risk investments—t-bills, banker's acceptances, and commercial paper—that provide ready cash. They vary by issuer, maturity, risk, and collateral, with government-backed t-bills the safest.

Explore guaranteed investment certificates as low-risk, principal-protected fixed-term investments, and compare escalating rate, ladder, installment, indexed-linked, and interest-rate linked certificates.

Explore how bond quotes reveal value and how bond ratings gauge risk, covering bid and ask prices, yield to maturity, and investment-grade versus speculative-grade ratings by Moody's, S&P, and Dbrs.

Learn bond math by computing current yield, present value of coupons and par value, and yield to maturity to evaluate bond value and returns.

Explore how normal, inverted, and hump yield curve shapes signal economic conditions and policy expectations. Understand yield to maturity and how central bank actions influence short-term yields and long-term demand.

Explore three yield curve theories—expectation theory, liquidity preference theory, and market segmentation theory—that explain normal, inverted, and humped shapes and guide investor and policy decisions.

Explore how bond prices move inversely to interest rates, and how longer maturities and lower coupon rates increase price volatility, with yield to maturity and current yield shaping returns.

Explore how bond prices fluctuate with interest rate changes by examining duration, coupon rate, and time to maturity, and learn how each factor influences volatility.

Discover how bond trading unfolds among sell side, buy side, and inter dealer brokers, with investment bankers, traders, and sales representatives shaping issuance, trading, and price discovery.

Learn the three key bond trading steps - trade agreements, trade confirmation, and clearing and settlement - and how terms like price, quantity, yield, and settlement dates ensure secure, accurate transactions.

Understand accrued interest as the interest earned since the last coupon date until settlement, when the buyer pays seller, calculated using par value, coupon rate, and days divided by 365.

Understand bond indexes as benchmarks for portfolio performance, comparing government, corporate, mortgage-backed, and high-yield bonds across investment-grade and speculative categories.

Learn the differences between common and preferred shares, including voting rights, growth potential, and dividends. Discover how price behavior, convertibility, and interest-rate sensitivity affect investors.

Explore how dividend record dates, ex-dividends, and cum-dividends determine who earns a company’s dividends, while contrasting bonds, common, and preferred shares.

Explore how common shareholders vote at AGMs, with per share voting rights across share classes, including restricted and subordinate shares, and the rules governing identification, disclosure, and minority approval.

Explore how stock splits and stock consolidations adjust share counts and prices without changing total value, boosting affordability and liquidity, while reverse splits avoid delisting and improve perception.

Learn to read stock quotations on the stock exchange, including 52 week high and low, dividend per share, day high and low, closing price, and trading volume.

Explore the four main Canadian preferred share types: fixed rate perpetual, floating rate, fixed reset, and fixed floating, detailing dividends, maturity, resets, calls, and conversion options.

Discover when to use preferred shares over bonds and common shares, highlighting flexibility, lower debt risk, and ownership preservation, while investors benefit from higher yields, tax advantages, and diversification.

Explore cash and margin accounts for stock purchases, including paying upfront or borrowing from a brokerage. Learn about interest, margin deposits, buying power, and risk if the stock price falls.

Learn how a long position in a margin account uses borrowed funds to buy more shares, manages risk, and may trigger a margin call when equity falls.

Describe the four steps of equity trading from trade agreement to settlement, including bid and ask prices, market orders, order execution, trade confirmation, and clearing by Canada's clearing corporation.

Explore common order types used to buy and sell stocks, including market, limit, day, and good-till orders. Learn stop loss, stop buy, and pro orders through practical examples.

Explore derivatives as contracts on underlying assets like oil or gold, including options and forwards, and compare over-the-counter and exchange traded derivatives in terms of risk, liquidity, and regulation.

Understand option positions, including two sides: holder and writer, and two types: call and put. Explore how premium, strike price, and maturity date drive rights to buy or sell.

Explore a practical call option example to manage currency risk over three months, showing paying a premium, exercising at 1.35, and scenarios where rates rise or fall.

Shows how a put option lets a Canadian oil company sell at a strike of 38, protecting against falling prices, with scenarios of 35 and 45 dollars and the premium.

Explore options terminology, including American and European styles, moneyness, intrinsic and time value, strike price, premium, and the roles of call and put options.

Compare forwards and futures as derivatives, highlighting private forward contracts vs exchange-traded futures, and explain long and short positions, margins, and daily adjustments to manage price risk.

Identify four groups of derivatives users: individual investors, institutional investors, corporations, and derivative dealers, and explain how they hedge risk or speculate using options, futures, forwards, and currency contracts.

Explore how rights offerings let shareholders buy additional shares at a discount, with key concepts like subscription price, rights per share, record date, ex-rights date, and intrinsic value.

Explore warrants as a capital-raising tool, understanding exercise price, intrinsic value, and time value, and how warrants differ from rights while acting as a sweetener alongside bonds.