0. What is this post about?

Are you a retail investor who wants to know reliable sources to learn stock investing? This post is exactly about this. This post tracks evolution of stock investment related advisory content mediums. Based on my experience, I will reveal which mediums will help retail investors get relevant, and easy to consume content on stock investment. This post will also help investment advisors to know relevant mediums for them to use, and reach out to their intended viewers/readers. After all, right engagement with your existing, or to-be-customers is key to build trust, and ensure long term customer retention. Lets get going.

1. Types of Stock Investment related Content Creators

There are following four main types of content creators who provide knowledge/advice on stock investment strategy.

1.1 Professional investment advisors

These are SEBI registered investment advisors. These advisors might be working individually, or as part of a mutual funds group. They create content to spread their knowledge, and reach out to future potential customers. Some of their content is free, and some paid. Example: weekendinvesting.com, capitalmind.in.

1.2 Investment Platforms

These are companies which operate investment platforms, or operate stock analysis platforms (free or paid). In order to drive adoption of their platforms, these companies increase their reach by spreading knowledge of stock investment. These platforms often have a dedicated content creation team, simplifying investment for retail users, and indirectly acquiring customers by content creation-led-marketing. Example: Groww, Tickertape.

1.3 Media Houses

Traditional newspapers, e-magazines, create content on financial news and stock investment. These platforms act as aggregators of stock advisory content, where leading professional investors post their articles or interviews. Example: Economic Times, Moneycontrol.

1.4 Influencers

These are either normal retail investors who have been investing for multiple years, and are now sharing their investment knowledge with others. Or, these are educated CAs/full-time self-proclaimed investment advisors, who create video courses/paid masterclasses, on stock investment. Example: Akshat Shrivastava, Shashank Mahajan (Value Educator), Sahil Bhadviya.

2. Five Effective Sources of learning Stock Investing

Investment advisors have caught on to the evolution of content mediums over time. Some of the traditional mediums are being replaced by more modern mediums such as social media. Whereas some traditional mediums such as word of mouth still remain.

I have provided examples that I use to consume financial information, for each of these mediums. These are based on my personal usage experience, and are in no way a recommendation.

First, we will cover traditional mediums; then we talk about new age content mediums.

2.1 Print Material

Reading is a good habit. In the investment world, it is a must habit. Reading annual reports, conference call transcripts, quarterly earnings reports, are key to understanding a company, its strengths/weaknesses, future growth strategy etc. Hence, it is a good idea to cultivate a reading habit. And why not start with the traditional newspapers or finance magazines.

Effectiveness -> Medium. Print mediums have good content. However, with the rise of new age mediums such as podcasts, videos, and social media – print medium is slowly being pushed to the sidelines. The effort needed by a retail investor to order a print medium, physically store it, is higher than getting similar content at the tap on your phone. Some of the good finance newspapers are Financial times, Economic Times. Some of the good finance journals are Dalal Street Journal, Valueresearch.

Almost all of the print mediums are now available online as well. Some have even made mobile applications to woo in new age retail investors.

2.2 Blogs

Blogs are a way for financial advisors, and investment institutions, to spread advisory tips to their existing and potential customers. Blogs are a short read, and can be consumed on the go. Nowadays, by installing a browser plugin (text to speech), you can actually have the blog being read out to you aloud.

Effectiveness -> Medium. Blogs offer a convenient way to read short pages of financial wisdom on the go. You can read it on your phone, on your laptop, or let google read it out for you. Some free blogs that I read are weekendinvesting blog, tickertape blog, SOIC blog. Some paid ones are capitalmind blog. Many investment platforms and stock analytics product platforms – such as Groww, Tickertape, send a newsletter daily or weekly – right to your email inbox.

2.3 Podcasts

Podcasts have been gaining popularity, and for all the right reasons. These are audio files around a niche topic; stock investment and financial planning in our case. Podcasts are convenient to use. They have libraries, play queues, and you can adjust the speed of play. With the rise of bluetooth enabled headsets/earplugs, people can now listen to podcasts during their morning walk, in the gym, or while travelling in a metro train.

Podcasts have even started replacing radio channels, used by car drivers, on their way to work, or on a long drive over the weekend. Popular podcast apps such as Spotify, PocketCast, allow monetization of podcasts by introducing ads before/after/during the podcast. Some Podcasts I listen to on financial education, stock investment strategies are: Bloomberg Quint, Money Konnect by Edelweiss Mutual Fund, Where’s My Money by Tickertape, and Financial News Made Simple by Finshots. I use Google podcasts for listening to these podcasts.

Effectiveness -> High. Podcasts are effective, owing to their ease of use. Podcasts integrate with your daily life routine. You do not have to specifically create time for them. Podcasts are easier to consume vs print medium, as you can hear the host’s voice, and make out the words he/she is emphasizing on. The two drawbacks of podcasts are – lack of retention and notetaking. But hey, you can find a way around. For me, I listen to podcast during my morning and evening walks, and as soon as I get back to my flat, I take note of key points into my e-notebook.

2.4 Social Media

Social media is definitely the king of all mediums in the 21st century. It is easy, and cool to use. Its network effect comes into play by engaging users to share, like and comment. It comes in various forms – Tweet it, Watch it on YouTube, or View it on Instagram. Social media has given rise to a new breed of “Influencers”. These influencers have massive public following, and often do paid promotions on their social media channels.

Some YouTube influencers I follow are SOIC finance, Akshat Shrivstava, Shashank Uduppa, Sahil Bhadviya, Rachna Ranade, Pranjal Kamra, Asset Yogi, Value Educator. Some Twitter Handles I follow are: @soicfinance, @deepakshenoy, @weekendinvesting, @sahil_vi, @mehrotra_saket.

Effectiveness -> High. Social media has taken the world by storm. Revolutionizing the manner in which content is generated and shared. The engagement of social media is phenomenal, where a user can choose to filter and search for topics he/she is interested in. One can read social media posts/videos which have high likes or recommended by the public, and subscribe to social media channels they find useful. The content on social media is a mix of good content, average content, and scam content. However, if you follow genuine social media influencers, and Do Your Own Research (DYOW), you should be good.

2.5 Online Courses

Courses are a structured way to learn a topic of interest. They have dense content, and often check your learning by quiz or application exercises. These courses are not a quick read/watch, rather 4-10 hours or more long. However, you can plan to complete the course over several sitting, with each sitting of 30-60 minutes.

Effectiveness-> High. Courses are useful way of concentrated learning on a topic. They usually have top class content. The course creators typically create paid courses, hence the quality of content is well researched and learner friendly. The only drawback I see for courses, is that they either require an upfront investment, and relatively more time to consume. However, they are a good way to reinforce your learnings, and get a wide source of opinions from professionals as well as knowledgeable folks in the investment space. For retail investors serious about learning stock investing, investment in upskilling yourself via courses should be a top option.

3. Learning Mediums for Short-term vs Long-term investors

The mediums you choose to learn stock investing can be different for short term and long term investors.

3.1 [Short Term] I want Stock Recommendations

Some retail investors look for stock recommendations in order to make short term gains. These investors should refer to print medium, and subscription services (blogs/e-journals). Some good ones are Economic Times daily stock stock market email, Moneycontrol’s daily email. Both of these have up to date analysis of industry sectors, recommendations on stock picks, and insightful interviews with investment managers who often drop their preferred stock picks. These recommendations include both Buy and Sell stock recommendations.

Stock picks of many well known financial institutions are also included in Economic Times’ subscription, such as Motilal Oswal, HDFC Securities, ICICI securities. One can choose to pay a little extra to get paid subscription.

3.2 [Long Term] I want to invest and hold stocks for >5 years

Retail investors should use Social Media for company analysis, to make long term stock picking decisions. Social media channels such as YouTube videos have detailed analysis of companies, both technical and fundamental. Other social media handles, such as twitter, have higher engagement from the public on stock advice. Social media content, can be combined with Blogs, Podcasts to reinforce your opinion on a company to invest in for the long term.

4. Parting Thoughts

It is great to see lot of good, and mostly free content, accessible on on the go on stock investing. However, the main source of true and solid learnings remains learning by experience. A person aspiring to be a successful retail investor, should dabble in the stock markets and learn. Other content mentioned in this post can act as complimentary knowledge source.

Apart from the ways to learn stock investing I mentioned in this post, there some really good community blogs. One such is valuepickr.com. The content on this forum is really rich, with in-depth analysis of companies ready for you to read and ingest.

I hope you found some resources mentioned in this post useful. You should feel better equipped to start your stock investment journey. If you were already on this journey, I hope you found some more incremental resources to refer to.

Which your favorite finance journal? Which is your favorite investment influencer? Do share in the comments below.

Happy Investing !