# Financial Markets Education

> Accessible education about investing, financial markets, accounting, and financial analysis.


## Posts

- [Do You Know Your Investing Opportunity Costs?](https://financialmarketseducation.com/do-you-know-your-investing-opportunity-costs): Every dollar you invest is a dollar you cannot invest anywhere else, and the best businesses understand this better than anyone.
- [You Have the Data. Now What? Turning Financial Numbers Into Better Investment Decisions](https://financialmarketseducation.com/you-have-the-data-now-what-turning-financial-numbers-into-better-investment-decisions): Twenty years ago, an individual investor who wanted a company's financial statements had to request a paper annual report or drive to a library.
- [How to Calculate DCF (Discounted Cash Flow): 4 Free Tools Compared Plus the One That Fills In the Data For You](https://financialmarketseducation.com/how-to-calculate-dcf-discounted-cash-flow-4-free-tools-compared-plus-the-one-that-fills-in-the-data-for-you): Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analysis is the backbone of intrinsic value investing.
- [DuPont Analysis: The 100-Year-Old Formula Investors Should Still Understand](https://financialmarketseducation.com/dupont-analysis-the-100-year-old-formula-investors-should-still-understand): Before we discuss what a DuPont Analysis is, let’s start with a question for you.
- [Should You Use Paper Trading to Learn About Investing?](https://financialmarketseducation.com/should-you-use-paper-trading-to-learn-about-investing): Everyone has an opinion on paper trading.
- [What Makes a Healthy Profit Margin for a Company?](https://financialmarketseducation.com/what-makes-a-healthy-profit-margin-for-a-company): You read about a company that has announced its earnings, and alongside the earnings number, it announces the profit margin.
- [Customize This DCF Tool to Suit Your Valuation Needs](https://financialmarketseducation.com/customize-this-dcf-tool-to-suit-your-valuation-needs): If you've ever built a Discounted Cash Flow model in Excel, you already know there are many ways to do it.
- [The Hidden Cost of ETF Investing: Who Votes When You Don't?](https://financialmarketseducation.com/the-hidden-cost-of-etf-investing-who-votes-when-you-dont): ETFs allow you to buy a single fund, which gives you instantly a slice of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of companies.
- [Gold vs Gold Miners: Why These Are Two Completely Different Investments](https://financialmarketseducation.com/gold-vs-gold-miners-why-these-are-two-completely-different-investments): What do you actually mean by gold? That might sound like a strange question. After all, gold is gold, right?
- [Should Individual Investors Buy IPOs?](https://financialmarketseducation.com/should-individual-investors-buy-ipos): With all the hype surrounding the SpaceX IPO, individual investors can be forgiven for experiencing FOMO (fear of missing out).
- [By the Time You Hear About the IPO, the Money Is Already Made](https://financialmarketseducation.com/by-the-time-you-hear-about-the-ipo-the-money-is-already-made): A company you’ve been following for a while finally goes public.
- [Did You Know That You Can Track Market Sectors with ETFs?](https://financialmarketseducation.com/did-you-know-that-you-can-track-market-sectors-with-etfs): Investors often look to the S&P 500 as a guide to market performance. But the S&P includes 500 stocks that meet certain criteria set by an index committee.
- [Market Movers - Weekly Gainers](https://financialmarketseducation.com/market-movers-weekly-gainers): Site owner may receive commissions from links on this website.
- [After Hours Gainers and Losers - June 5, 2026](https://financialmarketseducation.com/after-hours-gainers-and-losers-june-5-2026): Site owner may receive commissions from purchases made from links on this page.
- [Premarket Anaysis for June 5, 2026](https://financialmarketseducation.com/premarket-anaysis-for-june-5-2026): NOTE: Site owner may receive a commission on purchases made from the links in this video.
- [After Hours Gainers and Losers for June 4, 2026](https://financialmarketseducation.com/after-hours-gainers-and-losers-for-june-4-2026): Site owner may receive a commission for sales resulting from clicking on links on this page.
- [Covered Call ETFs May Be Paying You With Your Own Money](https://financialmarketseducation.com/covered-call-etfs-may-be-paying-you-with-your-own-money): I remember learning about covered calls about 20 years ago. I was reading about them in an investing rag that I subscribed to at the time.
- [My investing strategies lost me money… until I learned this.](https://financialmarketseducation.com/my-investing-strategies-lost-me-money-until-i-learned-this): Professional investors aren’t operating with the same information environment as retail investors.
- [Predictive Sages or Just Lucky Guesses? Whether You Believe in Market Timing or You Don't, You Need Data for Your Investing](https://financialmarketseducation.com/predictive-sages-or-just-lucky-guesses-whether-you-believe-in-market-timing-or-not-you-need-data-for-your-investing): What do Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, and John Templeton all have in common? They were successful investors who never believed in market timing.
- [Will getting more customers fix a struggling business? Probably not. But here’s what actually works.](https://financialmarketseducation.com/will-getting-more-customers-fix-a-struggling-business-probably-not-but-heres-what-actually-works): You’re at your desk, looking at falling sales. Your first thought is to get more customers, run more ads, or offer discounts.
- [Stop Watching Your Portfolio: Why Less Is More When It Comes to Investing](https://financialmarketseducation.com/stop-watching-your-portfolio-why-less-is-more-when-it-comes-to-investing): Most investors think staying on top of their portfolio means checking it constantly. It does not.
- [7 Guidelines for When Your Business Shows Warning Signs (Even If Sales Are Up)](https://financialmarketseducation.com/7-guidelines-for-when-your-business-shows-warning-signs-even-if-sales-are-up): Sales are up, but something feels off? Here's the short version.
- [7 Warning Signs Your Business Is Headed for Trouble (Even If Sales Are Up)](https://financialmarketseducation.com/7-warning-signs-your-business-is-headed-for-trouble-even-if-sales-are-up): Has this ever happened to you in your business? Your sales are strong, and your team is busy signing up new customers.
- [Your Business Is Profitable. So, Why Is There No Money in the Bank?](https://financialmarketseducation.com/your-business-is-profitable-so-why-is-there-no-money-in-the-bank): You closed a great month.
- [AI Is Taking Over Trading. Should We Be Excited or Worried?](https://financialmarketseducation.com/ai-is-taking-over-trading-should-we-be-excited-or-worried): If you’ve been following the financial world, you’ve likely seen that algorithms now handle a large part of trading.
- [How the Accounting Equation Works](https://financialmarketseducation.com/how-the-accounting-equation-works): The accounting equation helps investors and business owners understand how the company is performing.
- [Understanding the Income Statement: A Beginner’s Guide](https://financialmarketseducation.com/understanding-the-income-statement-a-beginners-guide): Meta Description (SEO):Learn the basics of the income statement in this beginner-friendly guide.
- [How Well Do You Know the Income Statement?](https://financialmarketseducation.com/how-well-do-you-know-the-income-statement): If you got less than 8 out of 10, you may want to review the blog post that is related to this quiz.
- [You WILL Lose Money in Options Trading – Unless You READ THIS FIRST!](https://financialmarketseducation.com/you-will-lose-money-in-options-trading-unless-you-read-this-first): The majority of new options traders lose money. It's a reality (or at least pretty close to this number).
- [Automated Trading with AI: Read This Before You Start](https://financialmarketseducation.com/automated-trading-with-ai-read-this-before-you-start): You are doomscrolling and you come across an enticing short ad that promises you can retire early by using automated AI trading.
- [Why Is DCF So Complicated?](https://financialmarketseducation.com/why-is-dcf-so-complicated): Discounted cash flows (or DCF) is a technique that can help determine the value of a firm based on it's cash flows discounted with a rate of return required by investors.
- [Investing: A Battle of Perspectives Between Rutherford Bull and Franklin Bear](https://financialmarketseducation.com/investing-a-battle-of-perspectives-between-rutherford-bull-and-franklin-bear): To realize the best possible investing experience, both the bullish side and the bearish side need to be considered. This post describes both market views.
- [How Custodians Protect Your Brokerage Account](https://financialmarketseducation.com/how-custodians-protect-your-brokerage-account): How does your broker protect your money and account information? The work of custodians is everything.
- [Top 4 Reasons to Not Chase Dividend Yields](https://financialmarketseducation.com/top-4-reasons-to-not-chase-dividend-yields): Tempted by yields? Learn why chasing yields could be a mistake that could hurt your returns.
- [3 Implications of Companies Hoarding Cash](https://financialmarketseducation.com/3-implications-of-companies-hoarding-cash): "Save for a rainy day." How many times have you heard that phrase? For many of us, it's good advice.
- [Do You Like Stable Companies?](https://financialmarketseducation.com/do-you-like-stable-companies): Are you one who likes stable companies or the excitement of volatile companies. Learn what it means and why it matters.
- [1 Major Challenge to Technical Analysis Packages and How to Fix It](https://financialmarketseducation.com/1-major-challenge-to-technical-analysis-packages-and-how-to-fix-it): Many financial progamming packages deal with technical analysis.
- [Getting Stock Prices using API Calls](https://financialmarketseducation.com/getting-stock-prices-using-api-calls): Programming REST APIs can be used for getting stock prices using API calls. It's actually easier than you think.
- [What to Know about Commercial Lease Agreements](https://financialmarketseducation.com/what-to-know-about-commercial-lease-agreements): How much do you know about commercial lease agreements? What you don't know can cost you!
- [When to Use CUMPRINC and CUMIPMT in Excel](https://financialmarketseducation.com/when-to-use-cumprinc-and-cumipmt-in-excel): Have you ever seen references to functions in Excel but weren’t quite sure what they did? The CUMPRINC and CUMIPMT often fall into this category for people.
- [Getting Started with Commercial Real Estate Concepts](https://financialmarketseducation.com/getting-started-with-commercial-real-estate-concepts): When you have the right information, real estate is not as difficult as many believe. Learn more about it in this article.
- [Review of Financial Trading in Python](https://financialmarketseducation.com/review-of-financial-trading-in-python): I was excited when I took the latest DataCamp.com training module called, Financial Trading in Python.
- [Accounting Equation Defined](https://financialmarketseducation.com/accounting-equation-defined): The accounting equation is a fundamental concept for investors, accountants, and business owners.
- [What Is a Short Squeeze?](https://financialmarketseducation.com/what-is-a-short-squeeze): As I sit here writing this article, the headlines are heating up about the stock of a company called GameStop (GME).
- [How to Create Your Own Custom Stock Screener](https://financialmarketseducation.com/how-to-create-your-own-custom-stock-screener): At some point as an investor, you’ll want to start scanning for companies based on specific criteria.
- [One Trick to Help You Locate Financial Data](https://financialmarketseducation.com/one-trick-to-help-you-locate-financial-data): After you start investing, you will eventually want to obtain financial data.
- [August 2020 Financial Round-Up](https://financialmarketseducation.com/august-2020-financial-round-up): August is often a slow trading month. As such, this post will cover items that are less trading-centric.
- [What Is Your View on VOO?](https://financialmarketseducation.com/what-is-your-view-on-voo): Many investors are considering Exchange-Traded Funds over mutual funds. The expenses are typically lower, and they are more tradeable.
- [A Few Ways to Invest a Lump Sum of Money](https://financialmarketseducation.com/a-few-ways-to-invest-a-lump-sum-of-money): Wouldn’t it be great to get a pile of cash? It doesn’t happen that often, but it pays to know what to do when it does. Many people would be tempted to spend it.
- [Your First Taste of Automation](https://financialmarketseducation.com/your-first-taste-of-automation): Have you caught the finance bug yet? It's a bug that affects experienced investors or traders.
- [Have You Met FRED?](https://financialmarketseducation.com/have-you-met-fred): Have you met FRED? If you haven't, you are about to when you read this article. FRED is not a person, but a thing.
- [Why Finding Competitors Is Tough](https://financialmarketseducation.com/why-finding-competitors-is-tough): When analyzing companies, you'll often find you need to analyze the competitors of the companies your are considering.
- [Why Earnings May Be Deceiving You](https://financialmarketseducation.com/why-earnings-may-be-deceiving-you): Earnings, especially earnings per share (EPS), are the little darlings of Wall Street. It is something all the financial pundits drool over.
- [Why Dividend-Paying Stocks Can Be Safer](https://financialmarketseducation.com/why-dividend-paying-stocks-can-be-safer): It may seem like a strange statement to make on why dividend-paying stocks can be safer, but they can.
- [Start Investing Even When You Don’t Know How](https://financialmarketseducation.com/start-investing-even-when-you-dont-know-how): ​Investing in hard. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either trying to sell you something or doesn't know how to invest themselves.
- [Understand the Drivers for Growth of Your Companies](https://financialmarketseducation.com/understand-the-drivers-for-growth-of-your-companies): When you understand the drivers for growth of your companies, you'll gain confidence when investing in them.
- [What Are the Risks of Investing in Stocks?](https://financialmarketseducation.com/what-are-the-risks-of-investing-in-stocks): Have you ever been burned when you bought a stock? You buy it and shortly thereafter, it tanks.
- [What to Know About the Current Ratio](https://financialmarketseducation.com/what-to-know-about-the-current-ratio): On the surface, the current ratio is a simple calculation. You take the current assets and divide it by the current liabilities.
- [Turn Google Sheets into a Financial News Hub](https://financialmarketseducation.com/turn-google-sheets-into-a-financial-news-hub): Bookmarking financial websites has its uses. However, if you have done it for any length of time, you know it gets cumbersome to manage.
- [Challenges When Analyzing Financial Data](https://financialmarketseducation.com/challenges-when-analyzing-financial-data): We all love free, right? This fact is as true in the financial markets as it is anywhere else.
- [Reconciling the ROE with an Example](https://financialmarketseducation.com/reconciling-the-roe-with-an-example): You're a finance person, right? If you're not, why would you be on this website?
- [How Return on Equity Is Deceiving You](https://financialmarketseducation.com/how-return-on-equity-is-deceiving-you): Analysts love Return on Equity (ROE) when analyzing companies.
- [Google Sheets for Financial Statement Analysis](https://financialmarketseducation.com/google-sheets-for-financial-statement-analysis): Did you know that you can use an add-on for Google Sheets for financial statement analysis?
- [Analyzing Company Financial Data Using Google Sheets](https://financialmarketseducation.com/analyzing-company-financial-data-using-google-sheets): Using any other spreadsheet tool than Excel for your financial analysis seems blasphemous, doesn't it?
- [How Much Accounting Knowledge Do You Need to Invest?](https://financialmarketseducation.com/how-much-accounting-knowledge-do-you-need-to-invest): Accounting is the language of business.
- [Why I Love Dividend-Paying Companies](https://financialmarketseducation.com/why-i-love-dividend-paying-companies): Dividends are the lost souls of the investing world. They aren’t glamorous.
- [LEAPS as a Substitute for Stocks](https://financialmarketseducation.com/leaps-as-a-substitute-for-stocks): Options investing is a great vehicle to enhance your portfolio returns. But, people are often confused as to which option contract to choose.
- [Is Every Item You Own Considered an Asset?](https://financialmarketseducation.com/is-every-item-you-own-considered-an-asset): You buy something at a store, and you use it for a few years. Then, the item is no longer useful to you and you decide to sell it on eBay.
- [Simplifying the Income Statement](https://financialmarketseducation.com/simplifying-the-income-statement)
- [US Government Teaches Financial Statements](https://financialmarketseducation.com/us-government-teaches-financial-statements): Did you know the US Government teaches financial statements? Now, before you get too excited, the information given on the governments website is basic.
- [Should Young People Take More Financial Risks?](https://financialmarketseducation.com/should-young-people-take-more-financial-risks): I often hear the advice that younger people should take on more financial risk. They have more time to recover, so the thinking goes.
- [Get Out of Debt Before Investing](https://financialmarketseducation.com/get-out-of-debt-before-investing): With the exception of a mortgage, you should get out of debt before investing. Loans types other than mortgages detract from your investing returns.
- [Is There a Stock Market Plunge Protection Team?](https://financialmarketseducation.com/is-there-a-stock-market-plunge-protection-team): Have you ever heard of the Plunge Protection Team? It was created as part of an executive order passed by President Ronald Reagan in March 1988.
- [Do You Need an Accounting Coach?](https://financialmarketseducation.com/do-you-need-an-accounting-coach): When you play sports, it's likely that you will receive instructions from a coach.
- [The Impact of Opportunity Cost](https://financialmarketseducation.com/the-impact-of-opportunity-cost): Do you know what opportunity cost means? How about the impact of opportunity cost? Is this something you should concern yourself with?
- [Return on Equity: The Hidden Leverage Time Bomb](https://financialmarketseducation.com/return-on-equity-the-hidden-leverage-time-bomb): Analysts love the Return on Equity (ROE) ratio and with good reason. A high ROE usually signifies a great company.
- [The Subtle Benefit of the Quick Ratio](https://financialmarketseducation.com/the-subtle-benefit-of-the-quick-ratio): In a previous article, I wrote about how the Quick Ratio works and how it can be used by investors.
- [You’ve Paid Off Your Mortgage. Now What?](https://financialmarketseducation.com/youve-paid-off-your-mortgage-now-what): You and your spouse celebrate the fact that you'll no longer have to shell out bucks every month for your mortgage payment.
- [Why Learn the Quick Ratio](https://financialmarketseducation.com/why-learn-the-quick-ratio): The quick ratio allows you to gauge whether a company can pay its bills in the short-term.
- [Getting By Without Greeks in Options Trading](https://financialmarketseducation.com/getting-by-without-greeks-in-options-trading): If you are new to the options trading world, you may not have heard about the Greeks.
- [Setting Expectations with Options Trading](https://financialmarketseducation.com/setting-expectations-with-options-trading)
- [How to Trade Options](https://financialmarketseducation.com/how-to-trade-options): You’ll find plenty of information about the dynamics of options and how to use them to make money in the options market.
- [Buying a Stock Means Owning a Company](https://financialmarketseducation.com/buying-a-stock-means-owning-a-company): If someone came to your door and told you a local business is for sale, would you buy it without hesitation? Probably not.

## Pages

- [Privacy Policy](https://financialmarketseducation.com/privacy-policy): Financial Markets Education provides educational content about investing, financial analysis, real estate, and related financial topics.
- [About](https://financialmarketseducation.com/about): Financial Markets Education is built to make investing, financial analysis, and market concepts easier to understand through clear explanations and practical learning resources.
- [Contact](https://financialmarketseducation.com/contact): Have a question about investing, financial analysis, or the resources on Financial Markets Education? Send a message using the form below.
- [Investor Profile Quiz](https://financialmarketseducation.com/investor-profile-quiz): By taking our investor profile quiz, you can discover what type of investor you are a conservative investor or do you like to take risks?
- [Privacy Policy](https://financialmarketseducation.com/privacy-policy-2): Our website address is: https://financialmarketseducation.com.
- [Blog](https://financialmarketseducation.com/blog)

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