Investment banking remains one of the most prestigious and lucrative career paths in the financial services industry. However, breaking into investment banking can be extremely competitive with the top firms only accepting graduates from elite universities. Luckily, thanks to the rise of free online courses, anyone can now gain knowledge on investment banking concepts without paying expensive tuition fees. By taking free courses from top institutions like MIT and Harvard, students can gain deep finance knowledge on topics like financial modeling, valuation, mergers and acquisitions from the comfort of home. These courses come with certificates to showcase your learnings on resumes for future job applications. Read on to discover some of the best free online investment banking courses to advance your finance education and career.
MIT Sloan Offers Comprehensive Investment Banking Knowledge
MIT Sloan School of Management, one of the top business schools in the world, offers their investment banking courses for free online through edX. Their Investment Banking course explores key concepts like M&A, IPOs, valuation and more through real investment banking case studies. Topics covered include M&A sell-side, M&A buy-side, IPOs, debt offerings, LBO analysis and pitch books. Students will gain practical modeling skills through building DCF, comp tables, football field summaries and more using real case studies in Excel. The course ends with students preparing an investment recommendation presentation just like in real investment banks. MIT also offers more advanced courses like Real Estate Finance for deeper dive into other investment banking domains. Upon completing the course, students receive a certificate from MIT Sloan to showcase on their resume.
Edinburgh Offers Free Corporate Finance and Valuation
For students looking to gain core finance knowledge required for investment banking, University of Edinburgh offers a free online course entitled Introduction to Corporate Finance and Valuation. Edinburgh Business School is triple accredited thus the course curriculum is designed to industry rigorous standards. Key concepts covered include time value of money, discounted cash flow valuation, bond and stock valuation, capital budgeting, risk analysis in finance and calculating beta and cost of capital. Students will gain both theoretical knowledge and practical skills through analyzing real company financials in Excel. Case studies on valuing Facebook, Apple and other tech stocks bridges concepts to real world application. A certificate of completion is provided by University of Edinburgh.
Harvard Business School Teaches M&A Essentials
Mergers and acquisitions constitute a major part of investment banking work. Harvard Business School, the top business program in the US, provides their fundamentals of M&A course online for free through HBX. The course is taught by HBS professors and goes indepth into valuation and modeling for M&A deals. Key concepts include M&A strategy, hostile takeovers, understanding merger consequences, and modeling acquisitions in Excel. Students gain hands-on skills in valuing target companies, calculating synergy gains, modeling sources of value creation and building football field summaries for M&A recommendations. HBS uses real case studies like Microsoft acquisition of LinkedIn to connect concepts to practice. Learners can add the HBS M&A course certificate to their portfolio.
NPTEL Offers Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management
For students interested in advancing their investment banking knowledge into portfolio management and equity research, NPTEL provides a free online course covering core concepts. NPTEL is India’s largest online learning platform backed by the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institute of Science (IISc). Their investment analysis course delves into portfolio management, efficient market hypothesis, fundamental analysis versus technical analysis, understanding economic moats of companies, and stock valuation techniques. Python programming skills relevant to investment analysis are also covered. Learners can gain theoretical knowledge as well as practical Excel modeling skills for equity research and portfolio management. A free statement of accomplishment is provided upon completing the course.
Free online courses from prestigious institutions provide an excellent opportunity to gain investment banking knowledge without expensive tuition fees. Learners can explore concepts like valuation, M&A, IPOs, equity research and more through real case studies and practical modeling exercises. The free certificates showcase your learnings to future employers. Investment banking remains competitive so utilizing free courses helps you stand out from other applicants.