The Fundamental of Data-Driven Investment (Coursera)

The Fundamental of Data-Driven Investment (Coursera)

In this course, the instructor will discuss the fundamental analysis of investment using R programming. The course will cover investment analysis topics, but at the same time, make you practice it using R programming. This course's focus is to train you to do the elemental analysis for investment management that you might need to do in your job every day. Additionally, the study note to do using Python programming will be provided.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

The course is designed with the assumption that most students already have a little bit of knowledge in financial economics. Students are expected to have heard about stocks and bonds and balance sheets, earnings, etc., and know the introductory statistics level, such as mean, median, distribution, regression, etc.
The instructor will explain the detail of R programming for beginners. It will be an excellent course for you to improve your programming skills. If you are very good at R programming, it will provide you an excellent opportunity to practice again with finance and investment examples.
Professor Youngju Nielsen creates the course with the assistants of Keonwoo Lim and Jeeun Yuen.

What You Will Learn

  • Build an investment factor model using regression methodology
  • Employ optimization algorithm using R standard library
  • Explain the portfolio performance

Syllabus

WEEK 1
Analyzing Past Returns and Forecasting Future Returns
You will learn how to read stock price time-series data from CSV file and analyze the past return data.
After you understand the past return data, you will determine what impacts stocks' return and make a future return forecasting model using regression.

WEEK 2
Understanding the Risk Using Factors
First of all, you will learn how you can gauge investment strategy using backtesting.
You learned the first component of investment strategy, returns, in the first week. You will expand your study to assessing investment risks. To understand stocks' risks, you will calculate covariance and correlation matrix using historical time-series stock return data. You will extend this to market factor and three-factor models to understand the risk you are facing with your investment. Finally, you will calculate factor exposure using a 3-factor model from week 2 and separate common factor risk and idiosyncratic risk of the stock.

WEEK 3
Portfolio Analysis and Optimization
In this week, This week, you will download various global ETFs and make global asset allocation portfolio using mean-variance optimization.

WEEK 4
Performance Analysis
You will learn about various portfolios other than a mean-variance optimized portfolio. Additionally, you will add a constraint to your portfolio optimization. In reality, you might need to consider more than volatility measured by return standard deviation. You will grasp the concepts of VaR, maximum drawdowns and CvaR, etc.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Machine Learning: Concepts and Applications (Coursera) Coursera
University of Chicago

Machine Learning: Concepts and Applications (Coursera)

This course gives you a comprehensive introduction to both the theory and practice of machine learning. You will learn to use Python along with industry-standard libraries and tools, including Pandas, Scikit-learn, and Tensorflow, to ingest, explore, and prepare data for modeling and then train and evaluate models using a wide variety of techniques. Those techniques include linear regression with ordinary least squares, logistic regression, support vector machines, decision trees and ensembles, clustering, principal component analysis, hidden Markov models, and deep learning.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks
An Introduction to Cryptography (Coursera) Coursera
University of Leeds

An Introduction to Cryptography (Coursera)

Cryptography is an essential part of secure but accessible communication that's critical for our everyday life and organisations use it to protect their privacy and keep their conversations and data confidential. This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the fascinating world of cryptography, covering both historical cyphers and modern-day cryptographic techniques.

Nov 16th 2026
2 Weeks
Algorithms, Part I (Coursera) Coursera
Princeton University

Algorithms, Part I (Coursera)

This course covers the essential information that every serious programmer needs to know about algorithms and data structures, with emphasis on applications and scientific performance analysis of Java implementations. Part I covers elementary data structures, sorting, and searching algorithms. Part II focuses on graph- and string-processing algorithms.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python) (Coursera) Coursera
University of Michigan

Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python) (Coursera)

This course aims to teach everyone the basics of programming computers using Python. We cover the basics of how one constructs a program from a series of simple instructions in Python. The course has no pre-requisites and avoids all but the simplest mathematics. Anyone with moderate computer experience should be able to master the materials in this course.

Nov 9th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Machine Learning for Smart Beta (Coursera) Coursera
Sungkyunkwan University - SKKU

Machine Learning for Smart Beta (Coursera)

In this 4 week course, you will learn about Smart Beta products. Smart betas products have the characteristics of both passive investment(having predetermined rules) and active investments(allows for factor investment). We will walk through the creation mechanisms behind different smart beta products and recreate some of them using R programming.

Nov 16th 2026
4 Weeks
Advanced Linear Models for Data Science 1: Least Squares (Coursera) Coursera
Johns Hopkins University

Advanced Linear Models for Data Science 1: Least Squares (Coursera)

Welcome to the Advanced Linear Models for Data Science Class 1: Least Squares. This class is an introduction to least squares from a linear algebraic and mathematical perspective. Before beginning the class make sure that you have the following: a basic understanding of linear algebra and multivariate calculus; a basic understanding of statistics and regression models; at least a little familiarity with proof based mathematics; basic knowledge of the R programming language.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Algorithms, Part II (Coursera) Coursera
Princeton University

Algorithms, Part II (Coursera)

This course covers the essential information that every serious programmer needs to know about algorithms and data structures, with emphasis on applications and scientific performance analysis of Java implementations. Part I covers elementary data structures, sorting, and searching algorithms. Part II focuses on graph- and string-processing algorithms.

Nov 9th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Laboratório de Programação Orientada a Objetos - Parte 1 (Coursera) Coursera
Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil

Laboratório de Programação Orientada a Objetos - Parte 1 (Coursera)

Este curso apresenta os conceitos mais importantes em torno do paradigma de desenvolvimento mais comum da indústria de software hoje: a Programação Orientação a Objetos (POO). Oferecido pelo Departamento de Ciência da Computação do Instituto de Matemática e Estatística da USP, o curso é voltado para quem já conhece os conceitos básicos de POO e quer se aprofundar no assunto, tornando-se um excelente programador. Ele funciona bem como uma sequência natural aos 2 cursos anteriores do Prof. Fabio Kon do IME-USP no coursera: Introdução à Ciência da Computação com Python.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Development of Real-Time Systems (Coursera) Coursera
EIT Digital

Development of Real-Time Systems (Coursera)

This course is intended for the Master's student and computer engineer who likes practical programming and problem solving! After completing this course, you will have the knowledge to plan and set-up a real-time system both on paper and in practice. The course centers around the problem of achieving timing correctness in embedded systems, which means to guarantee that the system reacts within the real-time requirements.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Using R for Regression and Machine Learning in Investment (Coursera) Coursera
Sungkyunkwan University - SKKU

Using R for Regression and Machine Learning in Investment (Coursera)

In this course, the instructor will discuss various uses of regression in investment problems, and she will extend the discussion to logistic, Lasso, and Ridge regressions. At the same time, the instructor will introduce various concepts of machine learning. You can consider this course as the first step toward using machine learning methodologies in solving investment problems. The course will cover investment analysis topics, but at the same time, make you practice it using R programming. This course's focus is to train you to use various regression methodologies for investment management that you might need to do in your job every day and make you ready for more advanced topics in machine learning.

Nov 16th 2026
2 Weeks
Approximation Algorithms (Coursera) Coursera
EIT Digital

Approximation Algorithms (Coursera)

Many real-world algorithmic problems cannot be solved efficiently using traditional algorithmic tools, for example because the problems are NP-hard. The goal of this course is to become familiar with important algorithmic concepts and techniques needed to effectively deal with such problems. These techniques apply when we don't require the optimal solution to certain problems, but an approximation that is close to the optimal solution. We will see how to efficiently find such approximations.

Nov 13th 2026
4 Weeks
Programação para todos (Conceitos básicos de Python) (Coursera) Coursera
University of Michigan

Programação para todos (Conceitos básicos de Python) (Coursera)

Este curso tem como objetivo ensinar a todos os conceitos básicos de programação de computadores usando Python. Abordamos o básico de como criar um programa a partir de uma série de instruções simples em Python. O curso não tem pré-requisitos e evita tudo, exceto a matemática mais simples. Qualquer pessoa com experiência moderada em computadores deve ser capaz de dominar os materiais deste curso. Este curso abordará os capítulos 1 ao 5 do livro “Python para Todos”.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks