If you’re interested in a finance career on Wall Street, investment banking might be the best way to go. The job is normally considered quite high-profile and comes alongside a handsome salary, offering the opportunity for you to play a critical role in the launching of young companies. For the most part, investment bankers act as financial advisors who help their clients—primarily companies, determine how to raise money. This money could be used for investment or expansion, and an investment banker might also be involved in managing a company’s initial public offering (IPO).
To be a good investment banker, you’ll need to know how to arrange finances, underwrite deals, arrange private placements, and negotiate mergers and acquisitions. While typically you might need an MBA in finance from a prestigious school to become an investment banker, there are many elements of investment banking you can learn online for free. If you have ever been interested in learning about investment banking, keep reading below for a list of 10 free online courses to get your start in investment banking.
1. Essential Career Skills for Investment Banking and Finance
Hosted by edX, offered by The New York Institute of Finance
This course from edX is designed to boost your career in investment banking forward and make your job fool-proof. edX is widely considered one of the best MOOC (massive open online course) platforms as they often partner with prestigious universities like Harvard to bring courses to students. edX is completely free to join, and many of the courses they offer to students are free to enroll in. edX also offers more advanced degree programs that you can take online, although these often cost more. This NYIF course takes about 2 weeks to complete if you work at a pace of about 3-4 hours a week, and you can add a verified certificate from the institute for $49.
During this course, your financial literacy skills will improve significantly and you will be able to engage with clients much more confidently during your investment banking career. NYIF also aims to inform students about the different sectors of finance so you can accurately choose a career path when moving into the financial field. The instructors for this course have decades of combined experience on Wall Street, and they are perhaps the most knowledgeable individuals to be teaching you this material.
Cost: Free
Certificate: Yes (with $49 fee)
Time to Complete: Approximately 2 weeks
Curriculum: Beginner
User Experience: Excellent
Quality of Instruction: Excellent
Pros:
- Start anytime and go at your own pace
- Partnered with the prestigious New York Institute of Finance
- Learn industry jargon and become more confident
Cons:
- Verified certificate costs $49
2. Investment Management
Hosted by Coursera, offered by University of Geneva
Specializations from Coursera are truly a different kind of learning, as they combine a variety of different courses together to give you a well-rounded career-building opportunity. Coursera, similar to edX, is highly regarded as a great MOOC platform, and they often bring courses to students for free that would normally cost thousands of dollars. This specialization is longer and takes about five months to complete, and almost half of the students who completed this course began a new career path after finishing it.
There are five courses in this specialization, including: understanding financial markets, how to secure investments over longer periods, and how to effectively manage risk. During this specialization, you will understand and interpret investment goals in a global context and understand how different financial strategies are used to reach these goals. Additionally, you will complete a hands-on project and receive a free shareable certificate upon completion. These courses start from a purely beginner level, so you don’t need any prerequisites to start taking this specialization.
Cost: Free
Certificate: Yes
Time to Complete: Approximately 5 months
Curriculum: Beginner
User Experience: Excellent
Quality of Instruction: Excellent
Pros:
- Start anytime and go at your own pace
- Earn a free shareable certificate upon completion
- Go over various different types of investment strategies
Cons:
- Longer course, takes 5 months to complete
3. Investment Banking Pitchbooks
Hosted by Udemy, offered by Perry Fisher
This course from Udemy is the perfect refresher for those who want to figure out how to effectively sell their investment banking products and pitches. This course only takes about an hour and 15 minutes to complete, and you will feel much more confident in your pitches after doing so. Udemy is a rather unique type of MOOC platform, as it lets instructors upload and price their own course material according to the skill level and length of the course. Udemy is free to join, and users have the option of only choosing to take free courses so they never have to pay a dime.
There are no prerequisites for this quick crash course, which teaches you the selling skills that are vital to your success in business and finance. Instructor Perry Fisher spent years working at an investment bank in South Africa, so he is more than qualified to tell you everything you need to know about pitchbooks. A pitchbook is something that is presented to a client with the intention of starting the selling process, and is one of the integral steps to success in the investment banking world.
Cost: Free
Certificate: No
Time to Complete: Approximately 1.5 hours
Curriculum: Beginner
User Experience: Excellent
Quality of Instruction: Excellent
Pros:
- Start anytime and go at your own pace
- No prerequisites needed
- Learn about pitchbooks, an integral part of the selling process
Cons:
- No certificate of achievement
- Does not go over investment banking as a whole
4. Introduction to Valuation and Investing
Hosted by Alison, offered by Khan Academy
Nearly 3,400 students have enrolled in this course from Khan Academy, and the class has a 4.1 out of 5 star rating on Alison.com. Alison is an online educational platform that is designed to help move students forward in their professional careers, offering classes on topics like IT, business, and healthcare. Alison is free to join and many of the classes are completely free to enroll in, with many of them offering paid certifications upon completion of the course materials. Khan Academy is one of the most popular educational organizations designed to connect students with the tools they need to succeed in their desired field, so they are a great resource for finding free online courses.
If you need to brush up on the fundamentals of investing and how to evaluate a company or sale, this is the perfect class for you. You’ll no longer be afraid of stocks and shares after finishing this class, which will cover important financial topics like Income Statements, Return On Assets (ROA), Return On Equity (ROE), Price-to-Earnings ratio, depreciation, and amortization.
Cost: Free
Certificate: Yes
Time to Complete: Approximately 1.5-3 hours
Curriculum: Beginner
User Experience: Excellent
Quality of Instruction: Excellent
Pros:
- Start anytime and go at your own pace
- Learn about financial fundamentals and company valuations
- Opportunity for certification at the end of the course
Cons:
- Does not focus specifically on investment banking
5. Finance Foundations
Hosted by LinkedIn Learning, offered by Kay and Jim Stice
Many people are familiar with LinkedIn, one of the most popular professional networking sites. Fewer people, however, are familiar with LinkedIn Learning, and they should be! LinkedIn Learning is a MOOC platform offered by LinkedIn, connecting business professionals with thousands of free courses designed to push your career forward. Typically, LinkedIn Learning uses a subscription-based fee where you pay a certain amount every month to access all of the site’s course material. Luckily for new users, however, LinkedIn Learning offers a one-month free trial. This is the perfect amount of time to complete this finance course, which takes about 2 and a half hours.
Instructors Kay and Jim Stice believe finance exists everywhere, and they believe you should have a comprehensive understanding of this subject. During this course, you will go over important financial topics like the cost of sales, the operating cycle, stock index funds, equity, fixed costs, and more. You will also get inside the minds of major corporations like Microsoft and Facebook and understand their IPOs. Over 100,000 students have started learning this course so far, so it’s certainly a reputable class to take.
Cost: Free (With LinkedIn Learning free trial)
Certificate: Yes
Time to Complete: Approximately 2.5 hours
Curriculum: Beginner
User Experience: Excellent
Quality of Instruction: Excellent
Pros:
- Start anytime and go at your own pace
- Learn about all the fundamentals of finance
Cons:
- Does not focus specifically on investment banking
- Content is locked behind paywall after free trial
6. Investment Banks
Hosted by YouTube, offered by Yale Courses
YouTube is perhaps the internet’s best-known and most popular video sharing platform, created in 2005 and bringing in more than $15 billion a year. YouTube is an amazing place to go to look for free online courses, as any video you find on YouTube is free to rewatch or review at any time, giving you ample opportunity to take notes and digest the information. This 1-hour course comes from YaleCourses, which is a Yale University open-source channel that connects students to Yale lectures without having to pay or enroll in the courses. Despite this only being one lecture in a broader course, there is still a lot of information that can be taken away from this section.
Taught by professor Shiller from Yale, this lecture talks about investment banking by framing it as a comparison to consulting and commercial banking. Shiller goes over eight different important topics in investment banking during the lecture, including Key Elements of Investment Banking, Regulation of Investment Banking, Shadow Banking and the Repo Market, and Steps to Take Today to Work on Wall Street. The remainder of the course materials can be found on Yale’s open-source site, so you can follow along with the course on your own.
Cost: Free
Certificate: No
Time to Complete: Approximately 1 hour
Curriculum: Beginner
User Experience: Excellent
Quality of Instruction: Excellent
Pros:
- Start anytime and go at your own pace
- Learn about all the fundamentals of investment banking
- Review principles from the former chair of Goldman Sachs
Cons:
- No certificate of achievement
- Only a 1-hour lecture
7. Take Your First Step in Learning How to Invest
Offered by Phil Town
Phil Town is a three-time New York Times Bestselling author and ex-hedge fund manager, and he certainly has some insider tips that can help you succeed in investment banking. His course has been backed by major news outlets like ABC, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, PBS, and more, so it’s one you don’t want to miss. Phil Town likes to help the little guys, and his website, Rule One Investing, is currently offering a free step-by-step financial course to help you obtain financial freedom and move forward in your investment banking career.
This course is specifically designed for investors that want high returns, people saving for their childrens’ college careers, investors who want to take control of their own money, and people with even small amounts of money to invest in the beginning. There are five lessons that you’ll cover during the course that include important topics like investing with certainty, investing fundamentals, how to buy a business and not a stock, retirement tools, and how to think like an investor. If you want to build up your investing foundation and learn how to invest on your own, this course might be the perfect option for you.
Cost: Free
Certificate: No
Time to Complete: As long as needed
Curriculum: Beginner
User Experience: Excellent
Quality of Instruction: Excellent
Pros:
- Start anytime and go at your own pace
- Learn from a former hedge fund manager
- Get financial freedom
Cons:
- No certificate of achievement
- Focuses more on personal investment
8. Investment Banking Divisions Explained – For Students, Graduates and Professionals
Hosted by Skillshare, offered by Afzal Hussein
Skillshare, similar to Udemy, is a unique kind of learning platform where instructors are permitted to upload their own course material. Skillshare has thousands of courses in both professional and creative subjects, and getting access to the site means you have access to every single class in the library. Typically, Skillshare requires users to pay a monthly subscription fee in order to get access to all of the courses. Luckily for new users, however, the site offers a 14-day free trial where you can access anything on the site for free. Since this course is only one hour, you’ll have plenty of time to complete it during the free trial.
During this one-hour course, you will look at all of the divisions that make up a modern investment bank. The kind of subjects you’ll tackle during the class include what an investment bank actually does, the difference between boutique and bulge bracket investment banks, front office divisions, and more. By the end of this class, you’ll be comfortable talking about any of the branches of investment banking and understanding how you could work in any of these roles.
Cost: Free
Certificate: No
Time to Complete: Approximately 1 hour
Curriculum: Beginner
User Experience: Excellent
Quality of Instruction: Excellent
Pros:
- Start anytime and go at your own pace
- Understand all the different branches and roles in investment banking
- Increase your chances of success in the field
Cons:
- No certificate of achievement
9. Investment Banking Course
Offered by WallStreetMojo
WallStreetMojo is a highly regarded resource for those who want to learn more about investment banking. All you need is an email address to get free access to their investment banking course, which includes a video series and investment banking guide. WallStreetMojo is a blog by Dheeraj Vaidya, who aims to help students and professionals become proficient in investment banking. Vaidya founded EDUCBA, an online video training firm designed for professionals in finance. This free investment banking course will take you approximately 7.5 hours to complete, with each video lecture lasting between 1.5 and 3 hours.
The four video tutorials you’ll encounter in this course covers the basics of investment banking, accounting, calculating, and Excel tutorials. While you don’t need to be an expert in Excel to do well in this course, certainly some Microsoft Office experience would be helpful. When you’ve finished with the video lectures, you will go onto the guides, which will help to prepare you for a job interview in investment banking with subjects like Excel skills, accounting, modeling, valuations, and more. Once you’re done with the course, WallStreetMojo offers students a variety of other learning resources they can move onto to help their career progression.
Cost: Free
Certificate: No
Time to Complete: Approximately 7.5 hours
Curriculum: Beginner
User Experience: Excellent
Quality of Instruction: Excellent
Pros:
- Start anytime and go at your own pace
- Learn useful banking skills like Excel and accounting
- Prepare for job interviews in investment banking
Cons:
- No certificate of achievement
- No live instructor to help you along the course
10. Introduction to Actuarial Science
Hosted by edX, offered by Australian National University
While actuarial science doesn’t directly teach you about investment banking, the skills required for actuarial science are very similar to the ones required to succeed in investment banking. As mentioned earlier in the article, edX is a widely-trusted and well-renowned website for learning new skills for free, and this particular class is partnered with the prestigious Australian National University. The course takes about 8 weeks to complete if you work at a pace of about 2 to 4 hours a week, and a verified certificate from the university can be added upon completion of the course for the small fee of $49.
During this course, you will go beyond mathematics to use actuarial science to approach topics like investments, banking, insurance, and finance in general. Within these industries, you will use actuarial science to assess risk and statistical strategies. While experience in Excel is not required to succeed in this course, you will be covering a lot of Excel skills and some prior knowledge would certainly be helpful. The course even offers “extension questions” that are designed to take you further than the typical course would, testing your critical thinking skills.
Cost: Free
Certificate: Yes (with $49 fee)
Time to Complete: Approximately 8 weeks
Curriculum: Beginner
User Experience: Excellent
Quality of Instruction: Excellent
Pros:
- Start anytime and go at your own pace
- Apply actuarial science to industries like finance and banking
- Get hands-on Excel experience
Cons:
- Certificate of achievement costs $49
Frequently Asked Questions About Free Online Courses for Investment Banking
Investment banking is a field that requires a lot of preparation and knowledge to become successful. When thinking about learning investment banking online, you might feel overwhelmed and as if it isn’t possible to achieve these things in an online course. However, this is not true at all! Many people gain valuable life skills and career advancements from online courses, and doing so with investment banking is not uncommon. Still, you might be hesitant to engage with an online course for investment banking, especially if you don’t have a background in Excel or some of the other commonly-used skills.
This is why we’ve created the following section, which is designed to answer all your questions about free online courses for investment banking. Each question includes an in-depth response designed to make you feel more comfortable about taking one of the courses listed above, and hopefully by the end of this article, you’ll feel inclined to start on one of these classes right away.
What Will I Gain From A Free Online Course for Investment Banking?
Depending on the exact field and role you want to go into, what you get out of an investment banking course will vary. In some courses, there are a lot of actuarial science skills involved, like mathematics, spreadsheets, cash flows, investments, and more. Other courses might include an overall summary of the field, designed to help you figure out exactly which area you want to go into.
There are many different careers within the investment banking world, including investment analyst, banker, banking associate, financial advisor, and more. Taking a free online course can bring you one step closer to one of these careers, as well as a higher salary.
Are Free Online Courses for Investment Banking Difficult?
Investment banking is certainly not an easy subject to learn, but there are steps you can take to make it easier on yourself. Having some sort of background in Excel, even minimally, will help you fly through a free online course for investment banking much faster. Excel skills are some of the foundational skills in investment banking, so it’s always good to have some additional background with the app.
If you tend to find mathematics skills especially difficult, you can rest assured knowing that many of these courses have a live instructor attached to them, meaning you can always use them if you have questions.
How Long Do Free Online Courses for Investment Banking Take?
Many of these courses, since they’ve been shared by instructors on skill-sharing sites, are of much shorter length. Many courses are only a few hours long and can be easily completed over a few days or weeks, especially if you only want a shorter overview or crash course of the material. Some other courses, however, are designed to be taken at the college-level, so they might last for a few months or the equivalent of a university semester.
Are Free Online Courses for Investment Banking Worth It?
Investment banking, due to its high salary and need for knowledgeable individuals, is often a career people believe requires a college degree. While this might be true to get into more of the high-paying jobs, much of what you need to know about investment banking can be learned through free online coursework.
You have nothing to lose by taking any of the courses on this list, especially when they’re completely free for you to enroll in. The only thing you could waste is your time, but this certainly won’t be the case with any of these high-quality courses. If you’re wondering if these courses are worth it, the answer is most certainly yes!
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