How to get a basic financial education before you start investing?
The main lecturer at UniMFA and PhD in Economics, Marianna Luzanova, has offered advice on literature that will help you start navigating the world economy and financial markets.
I. Macroeconomics fundamentals. The very beginning of everything. It is macroeconomic indicators that influence the development of financial markets. You can watch a macroeconomics course on one of the paid educational platforms; there are many diverse courses on Coursera or Udemy. I can recommend a course on Openedu. Put a “+” in the comments, and I’ll send you a link to it. You can also read a book on macroeconomics: Macroeconomics (2016) by Abel Bernanke, Dean Croushore. The book is a textbook, but that doesn’t stop it from being interesting.
II. Of all the schools of economic thought, I single out John Maynard Keynes. I recommend reading his book: “The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.” It serves as an introduction to how financial and credit markets work, and what factors influence them.
III. After studying macroeconomics, you need to study the international finance market. The problem is that when you try to find literature yourself, you are offered R. Kiyosaki at best, and books like “Think and Grow Rich” at worst. It’s difficult to get to good academic literature. Moreover, for studying international markets, I still recommend European or American authors, as knowledge should be taken from the primary source. I recommend the book: Adrian Buckley (2012). International Finance. A practical perspective. The book is in English. As an alternative, I found the book “Financial Markets. A Textbook” by A. Yakunina, Y. Semernina.
IV. To understand financial markets and their dynamics, you first need to study the specifics of financial instruments – what types exist and what their features are. I can recommend the book “The Handbook of Financial Instruments” edited by Frank J. Fabozzi. You can take a course, but in that case, choose courses offered by educational institutions, not on Instagram. Because I saw a course from a very popular Instagram blogger, with millions of followers, and it was “mass-market” content. Dig deeper. It’s interesting.