As far as educational tools go for investors, there exists a broad range of both excellent and not-so excellent resources.  Increasingly so, these exist online, with many investors looking to get a few minutes of homework or learning in during their busy days.  Learning about the stock market, bonds, mutual funds, commodities, and other investment vehicles can be a really daunting task even for those who are self-starters.  But one website stands out above all the others as the go to place for investment education, and the price can’t be beat either, especially since all of these resources are offered for free.

The CME Group, or the Chicago Mercantile Exchange offers some of the most diverse investment products in the world.  An investor can buy options on the weather where people looking to essentially bet on frost dates and the coming hurricane season can place their money.  Besides these novelties, the CME Group has created a first class educational product.  Investors can visit their website and click on the “education” link at the top right to see a list of available topics that contain online presentations.  Each of these presentations is broken down in easy to digest pieces and each is narrated.  There is even a place at the end to email the CME Group with questions relative to the presentation.  I have asked questions on multiple occasions and have received responses to all of them in about 48 hours.

Even some of the professors and finance educators I have come into contact with recently recommend the CME Group’s educational resources to their students.  Some even recommend putting these presentations on one’s resume, as proof of a sort of continuing education from the world’s foremost financial products experts.  I have even heard some of these educators offering their students the option of completing a few of the interactive presentations on the CME Group’s website in lieu of taking a mid-term or an in-class quiz.  How I would have liked to have them as my professor in college!

For example, there is a presentation entitled “How to Read Charts Like a Pro” in which the narrator describes the basic fundamentals involved in chart reading.  Investors learn about resistance, momentum, and other concepts critical to making decisions based on chart analysis.  There are literally hundreds of different topics and presentations, all of which come from a leader in investing education and knowledge.

Besides the online seminars or presentations, the CME Group also offers interactive learning presentations, where students can interact with the information.  These tend to be a bit lengthier and can last a couple of hours.  But for some people looking to learn about investing from a credible source, they can make the difference between understanding the markets and blindly following the advice of others.  The CME Group also has strategy and white papers on many topics relating to investing as well as brochures and videos.  These resources have proven invaluable to me as an investor, since much of the topics, concepts, and fundamentals found in the investment world are not taught to the general public outside of college classrooms and investment circles.  It has been very freeing to better understand the markets through the CME Group’s education products.  They have taken much of the mystery out of investing and put the power to create my own financial future squarely in my own two hands.