esoteriic.com

I'm going to link to some articles that I've posted on another website that revolve around the financial markets and economics. The articles are hosted on the website of my university's investment club website. I'm linking them here for the benefit of a wider audience. They are at a basic level and intended for a general audience. This is another in my line of articles that takes something relatively complicated and tries to explain in simple terms.

What to invest in?

This article is a brief overview of the main financial assets that are available to the retail investor (regular folks like me and you). Granted the topic title isn't the best.

What is the stock market?

Here we provide a summary of the stock market and what it means to invest there. It is the simplest overview that one could ask for.

Introduction to indexes and ETFs

I cover the basic idea of passive investing: that is to invest in a market index and let the market do its magic. I still think passive investing is good for many people but will seem quite boring for people that prefer a faster pace. I have mixed feelings on the efficacy of active investing but those looking for a quick buck can't do it via passive investing, at least not without leverage.

Hedging 101

In this article I look at the simplest form of hedging your bets in the financial markets. This has been written mainly with equities in mind but could also be applied to forex. This style of hedging is sometimes called beta hedging where one tries to match the volatility of two stocks. The article is as simple as it can be but the practise of hedge trading is more advanced in practise than passive investing.

WoW! Gold

This is an article I wrote about the economies of online games (specifically MMORPGs). I think such economies are a fascinating way to test out ideas of how an offline, real, economy might work. I cover some of the problems with cheats and bugs and how they affect the in game markets but crucially I examine possible drivers of supply and demand in the online economies. I rate this a basic article, it doesn't require much if any real knowledge of economics or the games but it certainly helps.