Don't waste your time! It's unstructured pile of videos recorded from face-to-face teaching. No explanations, no order, no structure, nothing.

I give the course a 2-2.5. I've graduated with a Bachelor's in Finance and wanted to try a coursera course to expand, or reaffirm, my knowledge of various topics. I did relearn a handful of concepts and learn more about other topics. But, it makes more sense as an intro class. As others were saying, I guess the course is taken from a full course, so the videos are snippets and do not provide a full understanding of all the topics.

The slides can be put together better (too wordy and/or provide a reference guide on what was covered in the entire lecture). I had the videos on 1.5x-2.0x speed as the prof spoke slow so I can see why people were annoyed by that. If anyone has taken a course on Investopedia, they do it better. They provide exercises frequently, notes, and make the content engaging and easy to follow. Maybe check out Investopedia for a small range of courses.

But to answer who this is for.. Someone just starting in Finance. If you had years of Financial markets in college, you do not need this. Or if you take it for free, look at the various videos and watch those as there are some informative videos on areas I haven't learned in college. But overall, not really engaging, kind of thrown together, no resources/notes just slides and closed captions as text. Would be better if topics were broken down, slides were more appealing, notes/guides provided, and different exercises throughout each lecture (the aggregate of all the individual videos).

very confusing and doesn't seem connected or flow

Essential course for those who do not have a basic financial background and want to understand the basics of this world. Great professor who know how to explain complicate concepts in an easy way.

I'm going to write my Review based on my survey since I answered the main questions of this course in depth in that section:

Tl;Dr: Good course as an introductory into Financial market concepts. Lots of mathematical formulas are unexplained or the necessary nuances are not provided. If you expect to do this course to play the stock market and understand the practical way to build an optimal portfolio, then forget it. You're gonna need to study much much more for that.

What was the strongest aspect of the course?

1. Perhaps the strongest aspect of this course that it serves as a very good introduction to the basics of finance by introducing and explaining a vast array of concepts into videos that were digestible and structured in a way that it was easy to keep track of each aspect of the financial system.

2. References made to the various authors, books and other financial materials that will undoubtedly be very useful in further research and study

3. Professor Shiller had a cheerful and engaging attitude and that was quite pleasant and is a teacher that emphatically tries to break down concepts into ways one can easily understand.

What was the weakest aspect of the course?

The course veered off into too many generalizations and editing could have been much more tighter in maintaining focus. Conversely, when slightly more advanced concepts were introduced or concepts which required inter-linking of different ideas, then the flow was interrupted and it was difficult to keep track of the lesson.

Primary examples include:

1. During the explanation videos for mathematical formulas, it would have been more helpful to break down what those formulas meant and each aspect much more in terms of the concept. Often, the professor would be talking about something general and then immediately jump into the formula and its relevance and just explain it . If graphs were used to illustrate the formula or different mathematical inputs put into place so we can get an example of how formulas are to be used practically, then that would be much more helpful. It was interesting to learn and know the mathematical formulas especially for CAPM or for Bid/Ask/Options spreads but they were either poorly edited or not explained adequately.

2. The whole section on Bonds/Options/Put/Call could have been explained more. I don't know whether enough concepts were discussed in Class or edited out completely but the information given was not enough to form a complete picture of understanding what those markets are and how they work practically. It was not broken down enough. I really didn't understand strike price or its application, how to work out how to purchase and navigate these securities practically.

3. The course videos were edited haphazardly at times as the Course felt sometimes almost too general as a lot of video content involved Professor Shiller speaking generally on concepts rather than giving in-depth research based information. Perhaps it is his style, but it seems as though much of the important complex information that is necessary to gain a fuller understanding has been edited out. That is problematic as application-based questions come in the Honours Content and it is very difficult to answer those questions without knowing the specific information or learning how those formulas work practically.

If you have any suggested improvements for the course please outline them below

1. Explanations need to serve 2 purposes, at least for me: To break down topics into easily understandable concepts and then once digested, to delve into the intricacies and complexities that it has to offer. The nuances of Professor's explanations were missing in many concepts and he would focus only on giving general examples on breaking them down.

That's well and good but he can't jump from giving a general example that "Diversification of your portfolio is important, so invest in all sorts of companies from different industries in order to maximize your dividends and minimise risks and then immediately jump into calcuating the expected return on an asset & its Beta" and then delve in to the Ri = Rf + Bi (Rmarket - Rf) formula and expect it to make sense.

There's a disconnect or a concept that has to be broken down in the middle so we understand the significance of the expected return and how do we calculate this using practical examples of real life stocks so we can come up with an optimal portfolio by inputting values into this formula. I felt that this disconnect is the primary thing that has to be addressed. If he indeed has explained and broken down these concepts in more detail and this has been edited out, then it very much needs to be edited back into place and the generalities removed. That would serve the course much better.

Right now, it's good for understanding some basic concepts but it's a hodge podge of mostly generalizations and very little of the serious nuances that one comes to expect from a reputed Professor. That's why my ultimate impression is that it's good for beginners but skip past the generalities since most of the course is like that and whenever the meat does arrive, it's not got the added flavorings and isn't cooked well since the necessary explanations for savoring the meat isn't there.

This may be very extended, but I spent quite a bit of time doing this course and I had to really push through at the end so that is why I decided to take some time and write a thorough review of how I felt and what it can change since I invested so much time into learning it.

Not at all legitimate course. The concepts and principles of the course, instructor are not clear. I'm a stock market trader and in one of his quiz the answer of one his question was stop loss at 50% value down. According to this very soon you will find yourself at the footpark. More over he's find out to be staying in the history all the time.

This was a terrible course.

Poorly produced.

Wonderful course. How I wish it had lasted longer, will be learning the concepts again and re-doing the course. Very fortunate to have learnt from Dr Shiller. Thank you very much Yale and Coursera Team.

A superb overview of financial markets, with pointers to additional learning materials. I believe this course is useful both from an academic and day-to-day perspective.

very useful for learning how the market works overall and back to the basics as to why financial markets exist and the what purposes the tools should serve.

Hello sirs, it is clear that the professor has a lot of knowledge in the Financial Markets area. However I have decided to leave this course without finishing it as it has no structure and I must say, no real knowledge given... Instead, a lot of concepts are being discussed during the videos, making it very difficult for the real BEGINNERS to even understand the subject of the discussion. This is definitely not a learning course for beginners, instead it's a set of discussion videos on some subjects, that don't even follow any specific flow or have any relation to each other... I am very disappointed with this course and will look around for a different one that can really EDUCATE me on the Financial Markets and their concepts. But thank you for trying...

As it was highlighted as free course with certification for MOOC.

I haven't received course completion certificate though my course has been fully completed. This issue needs to be addressed as why Coursera is not issuing course completion certification as promised during COVID 19..Such a cheating to all the candidate to enroll for any course.

This is not acceptable at all.

Honestly, this course could have been a lot better but it was very vaguely put together. Definitely not an introductory course.

The structure was pretty much all over the place.

I later enrolled in for ISBs course on financial markets and it yielded way better results for me.

STRUCTURE BAD. CONCEPTS RANDOM. TOPICS NOT ADDRESSED IN DETAIL.

Professor Robert Shiller is the best lecturer I've ever heard! He explains difficult termins using simple examples. THANK YOU Professor!

The videos are part of a real university course but are only snippets of lectures. The arrangement is bad. The instructor is very knowledgeable but often hard to follow. I reached week four but dropped out. I have learned quite a lot but I don’t think my knowledge is going to stay for long because I only understand small individual parts of lessons enough to pass the normal quizzes and have a ~50% on the honors quiz... Everything is quite a mess. :(

Professor Shiller has won a Nobel prize and I look up to him for that, but this course was just not planned well at all.

Training consisted by videos which were more like academic lectures, in which, no specific and concrete topics were presented explained, but they were more like story telling/discussions/interviews with the lecturer. Mr. Robert Shiller might be a very bright and experienced professional in finance, he also seems a very polite man, but I found it very difficult to follow and understand his lectures and way of structuring the information. I would it prefer the information to be more organized in topics which are clearly defined and explained.

waste of time, I could not understand properly the concepts, as he is not going straight to the point. so I unenrolled after watching few videos

It was very useful course. This course is very time taking but the best and worth full

But I'm not getting course certificate

too short videos

the pace is extremely monotonous and it makes the course really mundane. i want to drop this one and take another one instead, but i just cant!

My first course in this coursera website. I work in the wealth management unit of a bank in the Philippines. I am familiar already with the financial markets because of my college degree but this course gives the information to me on a different and fresh perspective. I am familiar with most of the topics covered here but I understand more about them since Mr Shiller talks about the historical context and gives many examples to picture the underlying i

The course is not that challenging, it could be better, with more challenging tests and assignements.

I prefer a course that teaches the fundamentals of financial markets in an Objective manner. Just watching the first few videos seems like you are pushing some type of personal ideology or agenda. Though it may have good intentions, I personally would rather a course without alluding to your views of morality and how everyone should give away their money.

On the contrary, I would argue that if wealth is created / preserved/ grown And kept within a family for many generations rather than fully donated to philanthropy, that family will likely not just sit on it under a mattress but it will "circulate" through the economy again anyway. For example, if a family wealth portfolio is kept or managed at any one of the big banks or investment houses, it is essentially recirculating since it is not in a box but getting re-invested and so on. Essentially just numbers in a spreadsheet at that point.. but numbers that may end up financing a poor family's mortgage, business loan, and of course the tax revenue to the state via tax on capital gains and dividends.

Best regards.

This couse seems to completely deviate from the main topic. it should include how to read the financial market closely, technical part of it like changes, how to assess multiple companies and track there movement. Instead of giving some stories of the Amercan area. I am deeply disappointed and it is not at all up to my expectation. The previous course that i did was remararkably informative and relevant.

How to I unenroll without wasting my money! Please help.

thank You!