Fidelity Investments: Classes And Educational Opportunities

Fidelity Investments offers a range of educational resources, including seminars, webinars, and virtual classes, to help investors at all levels improve their financial knowledge and make informed investment decisions. These resources cover various topics such as trading basics, options trading, mutual funds, retirement planning, estate planning, and more. The classes are designed to cater to different levels of investors, from beginners to experienced traders, and aim to provide practical knowledge and strategies for investing and trading.

Trading Basics

Fidelity Investments offers a range of classes and seminars to help investors improve their trading skills and knowledge. Here are some key points about their educational offerings:

Fidelity's Trading Basics classes are designed for beginners who want to learn how to trade. These are weekly classes conducted by trading professionals from the Trading Strategy Desk®. The course covers the fundamentals of creating and executing a trading strategy, including research and analysis, placing trades, and planning an exit strategy. The classes are held in a virtual classroom setting over four weeks, with a small group of investors attending.

Other Classes and Seminars

In addition to the Trading Basics course, Fidelity offers a variety of other educational programs:

• Options for Beginners: A 4-week virtual class covering options trading for beginners, including common options strategies and their application.
• Options Intermediate: A more advanced class building on the beginner course, covering options pricing, volatility, and generating trading ideas.
• Technical Analysis: This class teaches students how to incorporate technical analysis into their decision-making, covering tools and techniques used by technical analysts.
• Branch Seminars: Fidelity offers in-person seminars on a range of topics, including retirement planning, estate planning, tax-efficient investing, and using Fidelity's research and trading tools.
• Online Learning: The Fidelity website provides easy-to-follow online lessons on various investment topics, allowing users to learn at their own pace.

Registration and Availability

The Trading Basics classes and other virtual courses typically run for four consecutive weeks, with specific days and times provided for each session. Registration is required, and the classes have limited availability. Interested investors can learn more and register through the Fidelity website. The branch seminars may have different registration processes, and attendees can contact their local investor center for details.

Mutual Funds and Mutual Fund Investing

Mutual funds are a practical and cost-efficient way to build a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, or short-term investments. They are a type of investment company, known as an open-end fund, that pools money from many investors and invests it based on specific investment goals. The money is used to purchase a portfolio of stocks, bonds, short-term money-market instruments, other securities or assets, or some combination of these investments. Each share represents an ownership slice of the fund and gives the investor a proportional right, based on the number of shares they own, to income and capital gains that the fund generates from its investments.

Mutual funds are known by the kinds of securities they invest in, their investment objectives, and the type of returns they seek. There are many types of mutual funds, with most falling into four main categories: stock, money market, bond, and target-date funds.

Mutual funds are a popular investment vehicle, with over half of American households investing in them as of 2023, collectively owning 88% of all mutual fund assets. They offer several advantages, including:

• Diversification: Mutual funds provide a diversified portfolio, reducing risk by mixing investments and assets across different capitalizations, industries, maturities, and issuers.
• Professional management: Mutual funds are managed by professional money managers, allowing small investors to benefit from their research and skillful trading at a relatively low cost.
• Economies of scale: Mutual funds enable investors to take advantage of dollar-cost averaging and benefit from lower transaction costs due to larger volumes of securities traded.

However, there are also some drawbacks and risks associated with mutual fund investing:

• Fees and expenses: Mutual funds charge annual fees, expense ratios, or commissions, which reduce overall returns. These include management fees, 12b-1 fees, and other expenses.
• Cash drag: Mutual funds require a significant portion of their portfolios to be held in cash to satisfy share redemptions, resulting in a "cash drag" that earns no return.
• Tax implications: Capital gains taxes may be triggered when the fund manager sells a security, and there may be tax implications for early withdrawals.
• Lack of transparency and difficulty in comparing funds: Evaluating mutual funds can be challenging due to a lack of standardized metrics for comparison, and fund titles may not always accurately reflect the fund's investment strategy.

When investing in mutual funds, it is important to consider your investment goals, risk tolerance, and the fees associated with the fund. Mutual funds offer a versatile and accessible way to diversify your portfolio, but it is essential to understand the risks and potential drawbacks to make informed investment decisions.

Options Trading

Fidelity Investments offers a range of classes and webinars for investors interested in options trading. Options trading is not suitable for all investors and carries significant risk, so it is important to understand the risks and do your research before getting started. Fidelity offers educational resources to help investors make informed decisions.

Fidelity offers a "Getting Started: A Weekly Options Class for Beginners" which is a 4-week virtual classroom course for investors seeking to understand options trading. This class covers key concepts and their practical application, including what options are, common options strategies, and how to apply those strategies in your portfolio. There is also an intermediate options class for those who have completed the beginner course.

Fidelity also offers webinars for those interested in options trading. These include:

• "Starting Options Trading" – a beginner's series covering topics such as how to start trading options, choosing an options strategy, and common mistakes to avoid.
• "In the Money: Weekly Trade Ideas and Options Strategies" – a weekly webinar sharing trade ideas for traders of every level.
• "Options Strategy Builder" – a tool to help investors place their next options trade with confidence.
• "OptionsPlay" – an independent platform offering in-depth options education, trade ideas, and analytics, available at a discounted rate for Fidelity customers.

Other Resources

Fidelity also provides additional resources and tools to help investors with options trading, including articles, videos, insights, and a live Trading Strategy Desk® options class. Investors can also use the Options Strategy Guide to learn about each strategy, max profit, max risk, and profit/loss diagrams.

Understanding Bonds

Bonds are a form of IOU between the lender and the borrower. They are an investment product where you lend money to a government or company at an agreed interest rate for a certain amount of time. In return, the borrower agrees to pay you interest for a certain amount of time, in addition to the original face value of the bond.

The bond market is the largest securities market in the world, providing investors with a wide range of investment options. Bonds can be bought and sold in the "secondary market" after they are issued. While some bonds are traded publicly through exchanges, most are traded over-the-counter between large broker-dealers acting on behalf of their clients.

A bond's price and yield determine its value in the secondary market. A bond must have a price at which it can be bought and sold, and its yield is the actual annual return an investor can expect if the bond is held to maturity. A bond's price always moves in the opposite direction of its yield. When prevailing interest rates fall, older bonds of all types become more valuable, and investors holding them can charge a "premium" in the secondary market. On the other hand, if interest rates rise, older bonds may become less valuable, and they trade at a "discount".

There are several types of bonds, including government bonds, corporate bonds, mortgage-backed securities, and asset-backed securities. Government bonds are issued by national governments to defray their expenses and typically have a very high credit rating and low yield. Corporate bonds are issued by companies to pay their expenses and raise capital. The yield of corporate bonds depends on the creditworthiness of the issuing company.

Bonds also come with ratings that describe their investment grade. The most well-known agencies that rate bonds include Standard & Poor's (S&P) and Moody's Investors Service. Bonds rated by S&P as investment grade range from AAA to BBB and are considered safe and stable investments. Bonds rated BB or below by S&P are considered speculative or "junk" bonds, which are more likely to default and are subject to price volatility.

Bonds offer a great way to earn income due to their relative safety compared to other investments. However, they do come with certain risks, such as interest rate risk, credit/default risk, and prepayment risk. Interest rate risk occurs when interest rates change significantly from what the investor expected. Credit or default risk refers to the possibility that the issuer will not make interest and principal payments as required. Prepayment risk is when a bond issue is paid off earlier than expected, usually through a call provision, leaving investors with funds to reinvest in a lower-interest-rate environment.

Stocks and Bonds

Fidelity Investments offers a range of classes and seminars to help investors improve their financial knowledge and make better investment decisions. While some of these classes are free, others are exclusive, invitation-only events with limited availability. Here is a closer look at some of the classes offered by Fidelity, with a focus on stocks and bonds:

Stocks, Bonds, and Investing: Oh, My!

This is a 6-week or 3-month online course offered in partnership with your preferred school. It covers the basics of stocks, bonds, finance, and investing, helping you prepare for retirement, pay for college, and manage your finances without needing to hire a broker or financial advisor. The course is self-guided, allowing you to study at your own pace, or instructor-moderated, with interactive discussions.

Trading Basics

Fidelity's Trading Strategy Desk® conducts a 4-week virtual classroom course for beginners. This class covers the fundamentals of creating and executing a trading strategy, including research and analysis, placing trades, and planning an exit strategy. The course is taught by Fidelity's trading professionals and provides a great introduction to the world of trading.

Understanding Bond Pricing

This seminar offered by Fidelity simplifies the process of fixed-income investing. It illustrates the many forms of bond pricing, including the differences between valuation pricing and historical trades, and how technology improves the dynamics of live bond prices. Additionally, it covers Fidelity's approach to bond pricing and reducing trading costs.

Demystifying Bond Selection for Your Portfolio

Fidelity assists investors in simplifying the process of fixed-income investing through this seminar. It covers how the fixed-income markets operate and the tools and services that Fidelity provides to help build and monitor a fixed-income portfolio. This seminar is ideal for those looking to gain a better understanding of bond selection and portfolio construction.

Stocks, Bonds, and Mutual Funds

While not a Fidelity class, this course offered by ed2go.com is worth mentioning as it covers stocks and bonds in detail. It is a 6-week or 3-month online course that delves into the fundamentals of stocks and bonds, including what gives them value and how to look up their prices. The course also covers a range of other securities and investments, such as mutual funds, options, and REITs.

Frequently asked questions