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Stock Markets Explained: A Complete Beginner's Guide
54 students
Stock Markets Explained: A Complete Beginner's Guide
Learn how stock markets work: valuation, dividends, risk, diversification, and primary vs secondary markets explained
Created byEric Kang, PhD
Last updated 6/2026
English
English
What you'll learn
- Understand how stock markets function as part of the broader financial system and how prices are formed through supply and demand.
- Develop a clear understanding of how stocks are traded, how equity markets operate, and how investors participate in real markets.
- Explain the key drivers of stock prices, including fundamentals, market sentiment, and macroeconomic influences.
- Apply stock market knowledge to interpret real-world price movements, financial news, and market behaviour.
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Course content
2 sections • 6 lectures • 1h 30m total length
Requirements
- No prior finance or economics knowledge is required; this course is designed for beginners.
- Basic familiarity with general learning or academic content is helpful but not necessary.
- A computer with internet access to follow lectures and examples.
Description
Stock markets can look simple when prices are rising—but without understanding valuation, diversification, and risk, it is easy to confuse momentum with genuine investment value. Learn the framework behind stock prices before costly mistakes teach it to you instead.
This course gives you a clear, structured introduction to stock markets, equity securities, stock valuation, risk and return, portfolio diversification, and investment fundamentals.
Stock markets are central to the global financial system, yet technical terminology and complex pricing concepts can make them difficult to understand. This course simplifies the essentials through logical, practical, and easy-to-follow explanations.
You will learn:
How stock markets operate and why they matter to companies and investors
The characteristics of ordinary shares
Shareholder rights, including dividends and voting rights
How equity differs from other financial instruments
The characteristics of preference shares as hybrid securities
How companies raise capital through primary markets
How investors trade shares through secondary markets
You will also explore key stock valuation concepts, including the constant-growth Dividend Discount Model (DDM) and the calculation of stock returns.
You will learn how investors evaluate equity investments and how expectations about future cash flows influence stock prices and market valuations.
The course also explains the relationship between risk and return, including:
Systematic risk
Unsystematic risk
Portfolio diversification
How diversification can help reduce investment risk
You will also understand how equity issuance, stock trading, and financial market structures help capital flow through the economy.
By the end of the course, you will be able to interpret stock market activity more confidently, understand core stock valuation and investment concepts, and apply a structured framework when analyzing equity markets.
Don’t just watch stock prices move. Learn how valuation, risk, return, and diversification help explain what those movements actually mean.
Who this course is for:
- Beginner learners who want to understand how stock markets work in a clear and structured way.
- Intermediate learners who already have some exposure to finance and want a stronger conceptual understanding of equity markets.
- Advanced learners, students, or professionals who want a clearer system-level understanding of stock market behaviour and price formation.