Best Free MOOCs in Business In March

Behavioral Finance

School: Duke University

Platform: Coursera

Registration Link: REGISTER HERE

Start Date: March 13, 2017 (3 Week Long)

Workload: Not Specified

Instructor: Emma Rasiel

Credentials: Dr. Rasiel is the Teaching Director at the Duke Financial Economics Center (DFE), which facilitates finance education through teaching, research, and engaging alumni and employers. After studying at Oxford University as an undergrad, Raisel earned an MBA at Wharton and a Ph.D. in Finance from Duke. She teaches courses in Intermediate Finance and Behavioral Finance and was named one of the four “Great College Professors” by Newsweek in 2009. Before entering academia, she was an Executive Director in Goldman Sachs’ London office.

Graded: Students must successfully complete all graded assignments to complete this course.

Description: The markets are rational and orderly, right? A cause, such as a disappointing quarter by Company X, produces an effect like a lower stock price. Unfortunately, the world isn’t that simple. For example, investors may infer that one company’s performance is a harbinger of an industry-wide slump, which could spread to competitors’ stock prices.

In other words, market behavior is often the sum total of tens-of-millions of butterfly effects, with decisions often driven by past experiences, and comparisons (i.e. “mental shortcuts” or “rules of thumb”). Emotions also play a part, as fear, greed, optimism, or skepticism can create bubbles or panics with little data to support it. In this course, students will learn the psychology behind investment decisions. In particular, the course zeroes in on what factors can, in Rasiel’s words, “distort probabilities, and either underestimate or overestimate the likelihood of certain outcomes.” In the end, students will gain both self-awareness to avoid falling into similar traps and the understanding of psychology to capitalize when others fail to do the same.

Review: “This course is very a very challenging since it deals about behavioral aspects. But then, this course is fun and exciting because I was able to see biases and mistakes that many people does and became aware that I commit those mistakes also. Two thumbs up!” For additional reviews, click here.