Basic financial literacy

Basic math

Market history

Investment theory

Critical thinking

Self awareness

"If you don't know who you are, this is an expensive place to find out." - Adam Smith, in The Money Game

Understanding where we are in the business cycle will help investors to tilt their sector weightings for maximum effect.

In this lesson I will give you a broad outline of what critical thinking is, and why it's an essential investing skill.

You don't need to be a rocket scientist to invest well. All you need is high school math, a basic grasp of probability theory, and an understanding of the time value of money.

The time value of money is a key concept in your knowledge base. In simple terms, it's the ability to figure out what a dollar that you have today will be worth at some point in the future. There are simple formulas for that.

It also means that you understand how to figure out what a dollar that you expect to receive in the future is worth today. These are two sides of the same coin. This lesson will take you through the process of figuring out the time value of money.​

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MPT describes the Efficient Frontier, where each unit of risk produces its maximum return.

Because of the sheer volume of information available from thousands of sources, an investor needs to be organized in their thinking and approach to the subject. The plan, formally called the Investment Policy Statement, is the document that contains everything the investor needs to know in order to succeed.