Advanced Investments

By: Steve L. Slezak, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Steve L. Slezak

This is an advanced course for investors in the market, covering cutting-edge investment principles and practices used by professionals. You learn hands-on techniques for analyzing the central problem of investing: How to determine if a potential investment is a good deal. Employing concepts from probability and statistics, you learn how to measure risk accurately. Then you explore methods for determining if a given security, such as a stock or bond, will generate returns that compensate for its risk.

Throughout these 24 in-depth lectures, you weigh the relative advantages of active and passive investment strategies. An active approach takes advantage of mispriced securities that can be traded for a profit. A passive strategy seeks to build a well-diversified portfolio that can be put on automatic pilot. Many investors combine these strategies, and Professor Slezak takes you through a wide range of cases that show how to devise a balanced approach.

His many useful tips include how to avoid the most common mistakes that investors make, why you should think in terms of net present value in evaluating a company, how to combine securities in order to control risk, and the importance of analyzing an investment before you act.

Professor Slezak is an expert who knows how to communicate effectively. He enlivens his presentation with colorful anecdotes and object lessons from the recent history of Wall Street. His parting advice: Don't be afraid of the market. Nothing is a sure thing, he stresses, but the market has performed consistently over the long term.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2014 The Great Courses (P)2014 The Teaching Company, LLC

slightly outdated

he tells you to not care if your shares are being lent out by your brokerage. you should care if your brokerage is making money off people betting against your investment.

he doesn't talk about pfof or payment for order flow. which is how brokerages use you to make money, yet you are not the customer

also data on the internet from Yahoo finance or other sources can and has been manipulated to push a narrative of a given company.

still he gives a great deal of good information.

Certainly Advanced, Portfolio Theory

The audiobook goes over elements of 'portfolio theory' with detailed discussions of bond pricing, risk and returns as beta and alpha, and then some options/futures investing. Most of it went over my head, but for those who are comfortable with the basic terms, it is sufficiently advanced as a next step.

Excellent content, but you need to watch the video

What did you like best about Advanced Investments? What did you like least?

The course content was excellent. However, because there's a lot of math/statistics involved, listening to equations being spoken leaves you missing out. I'm a long-time Teaching Company (aka The Great Courses) customer and I wish I had purchase this item directly from them in the video format. Although I was excited to see it on Audible (where it is also cheaper), it was just too hard to follow without actually seeing anything.

Hard To Follow Without Documentation

Would you try another book from The Great Courses and/or Professor Steve L. Slezak, PhD?

This is a great course with a lot of great information and that is the problem. Without the documentation, that Audible does not provide, this is a very very hard course to follow by just listening.

Would you be willing to try another one of Professor Steve L. Slezak, PhD’s performances?

Yes once you starting providing the documentation/text he would be using with the course.

Yes its Advanced!

Would you consider the audio edition of Advanced Investments to be better than the print version?

No, and the PDF can be printed out. I strongly suggest you print sections as you go if you want to get the most out of this audiobook/ lecture.

Would you be willing to try another book from The Great Courses? Why or why not?

Yes, they are the best!

Any additional comments?

Some of these reviews are bias! Yes its heavy in mathematics because valuation formulas, derivative pricing and every other mathematical example used in this audiobook/lecture that is used by professionals is mathematics heavy! My advice is brush up on your statistics. I am not a math person but I'm trying to learn to better my skills in finance. I have listened to this book a few times and it was not until I took a basic statistic class that I actually began to understand some of the terminology used in this book.

This information is essential if you are out to master investing, even for the novice investor.