Hyperion Entities
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Curriculum

Every lesson in the Hyperion Entities core path, in order. Start at the top and each lesson builds on the ones before it. Optional deep dives are marked, and depth tracks for going further are listed after Part 6.

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Free open to everyone. Other lessons are included with membership.

Start Here

How the curriculum works, and whether you're ready to invest at all.

1 modules, 2 lessons · Free

Before You Begin

2 lessons
  1. How Hyperion Entities WorksFree
  2. Are You Ready to Invest?Free

Part 1: Foundations

What investing is, how markets work, and how a first investment actually happens.

3 modules, 21 lessons · Free

How Investing Works

7 lessons
  1. What Is Investing?Free
  2. Risk and ReturnFree
  3. CompoundingFree
  4. Inflation and Purchasing PowerFree
  5. Time Horizon and Risk ToleranceFree
  6. Your Own Behavior Is Part of the RiskFree
  7. Practice: How Investing WorksFree

How Markets Work

7 lessons
  1. What a Financial Market IsFree
  2. Exchanges, Buyers, and SellersFree
  3. Bid, Ask, and the SpreadFree
  4. Why Prices MoveFree
  5. Who Regulates the MarketsFree
  6. Market Indexes: What "The Market" MeansFree
  7. Practice: How Markets WorkFree

How You Actually Invest

7 lessons
  1. Brokerage AccountsFree
  2. Taxable vs. Tax-Advantaged AccountsFree
  3. Order Types: Market, Limit, and StopFree
  4. Settlement, Fees, and Fractional SharesFree
  5. Keeping Your Account SafeFree
  6. Margin and Short SellingFree
  7. Practice: How You Actually InvestFree

Capstone. Capstone: Follow the Trade

Part 2: What You Can Own

Stocks, funds, bonds, and cash: what each one is and what it's for.

4 modules, 27 lessons · First lesson of each module free

Stocks

7 lessons
  1. What a Stock IsFree
  2. Why Companies Issue Stock
  3. Shares Outstanding and Market CapitalizationFree
  4. Dividends and Buybacks
  5. Dilution and Stock Splits
  6. Common vs. Preferred Stock
  7. Practice: Stocks

Funds, ETFs, and Index Investing

7 lessons
  1. Mutual Funds vs. ETFsFree
  2. Index FundsFree
  3. How to Read an ETF
  4. Types of ETFs
  5. Target-Date Funds
  6. Leveraged and Inverse ETFs
  7. Practice: Funds, ETFs, and Index Investing

Bonds and Cash

7 lessons
  1. What a Bond IsFree
  2. Why Bond Prices and Yields Move in Opposite DirectionsFree
  3. Treasuries, Corporate Bonds, and Munis
  4. Inflation-Protected Bonds: TIPS and I Bonds
  5. Savings Accounts, CDs, and Money Market Funds
  6. Duration and the Yield Curve
  7. Practice: Bonds and Cash

Other Assets, Briefly

6 lessons
  1. REITsFree
  2. Commodities
  3. Options: A First Look
  4. Crypto: What It Is and What Can Go Wrong
  5. Alternative Investments
  6. Practice: Other Assets, Briefly

Part 3: Understanding Businesses

A share is part of a real company. Learn how companies earn money and how to read their numbers.

3 modules, 20 lessons · First lesson of each module free

How Businesses Make Money

8 lessons
  1. Business Models and Revenue StreamsFree
  2. Costs, Margins, and Profitability
  3. Industries, Sectors, and Competition
  4. Competitive AdvantagesFree
  5. Management and Capital Allocation
  6. Where Growth Comes From
  7. Business Risk
  8. Practice: How Businesses Make Money

Financial Statements

7 lessons
  1. The Three Financial StatementsFree
  2. The Income Statement
  3. The Balance Sheet
  4. The Cash Flow Statement
  5. How the Statements Connect
  6. Why Earnings and Cash Differ
  7. Practice: Financial Statements

Reading the Numbers

5 lessons
  1. Is It Profitable?Free
  2. Is It Financially Strong?
  3. Is It Growing?
  4. No Single Number Tells the Story
  5. Practice: Reading the Numbers

Capstone. Capstone: Business Analysis

Part 4: Research and Valuation

How to research a company, judge the information you find, and think about price versus value.

4 modules, 30 lessons · First lesson of each module free

Researching a Company

10 lessons
  1. Where Research StartsFree
  2. Primary vs. Secondary Sources
  3. SEC Filings: 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K
  4. Earnings Reports and Earnings Calls
  5. GAAP and Non-GAAP Numbers
  6. Researching Management and Competitors
  7. Finding Ideas Worth Researching
  8. Building an Investment Thesis
  9. Fact, Interpretation, and Confirmation Bias
  10. Practice: Researching a Company

Judging Information

5 lessons
  1. Finfluencers, Conflicts of Interest, and Sponsored ContentFree
  2. Scams: Pump-and-Dumps, Fake Gurus, and Deepfakes
  3. Misleading Performance Claims
  4. Using AI as a Research Assistant
  5. Practice: Judging Information

Valuation Fundamentals

8 lessons
  1. Price vs. ValueFree
  2. Market Cap vs. Enterprise Value
  3. Earnings Multiples: P/E and PEGFree
  4. Other Multiples: P/S, P/B, and EV/EBITDA
  5. Earnings Yield and Free Cash Flow Yield
  6. Relative and Historical Valuation
  7. Why Cheap Isn't Always Undervalued
  8. Practice: Valuation Fundamentals

Intrinsic Value

7 lessons
  1. Time Value of Money and Discount RatesFree
  2. Cost of Capital
  3. Discounted Cash Flow, Step by StepFree
  4. Terminal Value and Sensitivity
  5. Margin of Safety and Valuation Ranges
  6. The Limits of DCF Models
  7. Practice: Intrinsic Value

Capstone. Capstone: Build an Investment Thesis

Part 5: Building a Portfolio

How investments fit together: allocation, position size, risk, and upkeep.

4 modules, 19 lessons · First lesson of each module free

Portfolio Construction

5 lessons
  1. What a Portfolio Is ForFree
  2. Asset Allocation
  3. DiversificationFree
  4. Correlation, Plainly
  5. Concentration vs. Diversification

Sizing and Building Positions

5 lessons
  1. Position SizingFree
  2. Scaling Into a Position
  3. Dollar-Cost Averaging, Lump Sum, or Scaling In?Free
  4. Adding to Winners and Averaging Down
  5. Scaling Out and Reasons to Sell

Risk

6 lessons
  1. What Investment Risk Really MeansFree
  2. Drawdowns and the Math of Recovery
  3. Company, Sector, Market, and Liquidity Risk
  4. Interest Rate, Inflation, and Currency Risk
  5. Sequence Risk
  6. Managing Risk Without Predicting Everything

Maintaining a Portfolio

3 lessons
  1. Monitoring Positions and Revisiting a ThesisFree
  2. Portfolio Drift and Rebalancing
  3. When One Position Gets Too Big

Capstone. Capstone: Build a Portfolio

Part 6: Strategy, Behavior, Accounts, and Taxes

Investing approaches and their tradeoffs, the psychology that undermines them, the economy around them, retirement accounts, and the taxes that follow a sale.

5 modules, 32 lessons · First lesson of each module free

Investment Strategies

5 lessons
  1. Passive vs. Active InvestingFree
  2. Value, Growth, Quality, and GARP
  3. Dividend and Income Investing
  4. Contrarian and Factor Investing
  5. Choosing an Approach That Fits You

Investor Behavior

5 lessons
  1. Why Smart People Make Bad Investment DecisionsFree
  2. Fear, Greed, FOMO, and Herding
  3. Loss Aversion, Anchoring, and Sunk Costs
  4. Overconfidence, Recency, and Narrative Bias
  5. Process vs. Outcome

Markets and the Economy

6 lessons
  1. Growth, Inflation, and Interest RatesFree
  2. Central Banks and Monetary Policy
  3. Business Cycles and Recessions
  4. Bull Markets, Bear Markets, and Recoveries
  5. Bubbles, Sentiment, and Narratives
  6. Why Timing the Market Is Hard

Retirement and Tax-Advantaged Accounts

11 lessons
  1. How Retirement Accounts WorkFree
  2. 401(k)s and Other Workplace Plans
  3. Employer Matches and Vesting
  4. Traditional vs. RothFree
  5. IRAs
  6. Contribution Limits and Deadlines
  7. Rollovers and Changing Jobs
  8. Early Withdrawals and Required Minimum Distributions
  9. Health Savings Accounts
  10. 529 Education Savings Plans
  11. Asset Location

Taxes and Selling

5 lessons
  1. Realized Gains, Unrealized Gains, and Cost BasisFree
  2. Short-Term vs. Long-Term Capital GainsFree
  3. Capital Losses, Tax-Loss Harvesting, and Wash Sales
  4. How Dividends and Interest Are Taxed
  5. Tax Considerations When Selling

Depth tracks

Optional tracks for going further. None is required for the core path.

Foundations for depth

Math and Statistics for Investors

The numbers behind investing, from percentages to probability, explained from scratch.

1 modules, 8 lessons · Best after Part 1

Numbers Investors Use
8 lessons
  1. Percentages and Percentage PointsFree
  2. Arithmetic and Geometric Averages
  3. Reading Charts Honestly
  4. Probability and Expected Value
  5. Distributions, Standard Deviation, and Fat Tails
  6. Correlation Is Not Causation
  7. Present Value and Future Value Formulas
  8. Investing Math in a Spreadsheet

Lessons from Market History

Major crashes, bubbles, and recoveries, and what each one teaches.

1 modules, 14 lessons · Best after Part 2

Crises and Recoveries
14 lessons
  1. The Panic of 1907Free
  2. The 1929 Crash and the Great Depression
  3. Inflation in the 1970s
  4. The 1987 Crash
  5. Japan's Bubble and Lost Decades
  6. The 1994 Bond Market Rout
  7. LTCM and the 1998 Crisis
  8. The Dot-Com Bubble
  9. The 2008 Financial Crisis
  10. The 2010 Flash Crash
  11. The 2020 Pandemic Crash
  12. The 2022 Stock and Bond Decline
  13. What the Crises Have in Common
  14. Practice: Market History

Economics for Investors

How the economy works, from supply and demand to money, debt, and trade.

2 modules, 24 lessons · Best after Part 2

Microeconomics
11 lessons
  1. Supply and DemandFree
  2. Elasticity in Depth
  3. Opportunity Cost and Thinking at the Margin
  4. Competition and Market Structure
  5. Game Theory and Strategic Rivals
  6. Pricing Power
  7. Network Effects and Platforms
  8. Costs, Scale, and Profit
  9. Externalities and Regulation
  10. Information, Incentives, and Moral Hazard
  11. Practice: Microeconomics
Macroeconomics
13 lessons
  1. GDP and How It Is MeasuredFree
  2. Money, Banking, and Credit
  3. Fiscal Policy and Government Debt
  4. Trade, Tariffs, and Currencies
  5. Reading Economic Data Releases
  6. Measuring Inflation: CPI and PCEFree
  7. What Drives Inflation
  8. The Labor Market in Depth
  9. The Federal Reserve's Toolkit
  10. Productivity and Long-Run Growth
  11. Housing and the Economy
  12. Leading Indicators and Recession SignalsFree
  13. Practice: Macroeconomics

Analysis and valuation

Financial Statement Analysis in Depth

Beyond the three statements: the accounting choices that shape the numbers.

3 modules, 15 lessons · Best after Part 3

Accounting in Depth
8 lessons
  1. Revenue RecognitionFree
  2. Accruals and Working Capital
  3. Depreciation, Amortization, and Capital Spending
  4. Leases
  5. Deferred Taxes
  6. Stock-Based Compensation
  7. Segment Reporting
  8. Pensions and Other Long-Term Liabilities
Judging the Numbers
3 lessons
  1. Quality of EarningsFree
  2. Accounting Red Flags
  3. Famous Accounting Frauds and What They TeachFree
Industry-Specific Statements
4 lessons
  1. Reading a Bank's Financial StatementsFree
  2. Reading an Insurer's Financial Statements
  3. Software and Subscription Metrics
  4. Energy and Commodity Producers

Capstone. Capstone: Quality of Earnings

Corporate Finance

How companies raise money, spend it, and return it, and what that means for shareholders.

2 modules, 10 lessons · Best after Part 4

Financing and Capital
3 lessons
  1. Capital StructureFree
  2. Cost of Capital in Depth
  3. Debt, Covenants, and Credit Ratings
Allocating Capital
7 lessons
  1. Capital Allocation DecisionsFree
  2. Dividend Policy
  3. When Buybacks Create ValueFree
  4. Mergers and Acquisitions
  5. Spin-Offs and Divestitures
  6. Bankruptcy and Restructuring
  7. Management Incentives and Corporate Governance

Valuation and Modeling

Advanced valuation methods, and building your own model from a company's filings.

2 modules, 12 lessons · Best after Part 4

Methods
10 lessons
  1. Scenario Analysis: Bull, Base, and Bear CasesFree
  2. Reverse DCFFree
  3. Sum-of-the-Parts Valuation
  4. Comparable Companies and Precedent Transactions
  5. Valuing Cyclical Companies
  6. Valuing Banks and Insurers
  7. Valuing REITs
  8. High-Growth and Negative-Earnings Companies
  9. Valuing the Whole Market
  10. Valuation Under Uncertainty
Modeling
2 lessons
  1. Building a Model in a SpreadsheetFree
  2. Building a DCF from a 10-K

Capstone. Capstone: A Valuation Range

Markets and instruments

Fixed Income in Depth

Bonds beyond the basics: yield, duration, credit, and how bond portfolios are built.

2 modules, 17 lessons · Best after Part 2

Bond Math
9 lessons
  1. Yield MeasuresFree
  2. Duration and Convexity
  3. The Yield Curve in Depth
  4. Interest Rate Scenarios
  5. Treasury Auctions and Bill Yields
  6. Zero-Coupon Bonds and STRIPS
  7. Real Yields and Breakeven Inflation
  8. How Bonds Are Quoted and Traded
  9. Practice: Bond Math
Credit and Markets
8 lessons
  1. Credit AnalysisFree
  2. Credit Spreads
  3. High-Yield Bonds
  4. Municipal Bonds in Depth
  5. Mortgage-Backed and Asset-Backed Securities
  6. Bond Funds vs. Individual Bonds
  7. Bond LaddersFree
  8. Practice: Credit and Markets

Derivatives

Options, futures, forwards, and swaps: how they work, how they're used, and how they fail.

2 modules, 16 lessons · Best after Part 5

Options
9 lessons
  1. Calls and PutsFree
  2. Strike, Expiration, and Premium
  3. Intrinsic Value, Extrinsic Value, and Moneyness
  4. Exercise and Assignment
  5. The Greeks
  6. Implied Volatility
  7. Covered Calls and Protective PutsFree
  8. The Major Risks of Options
  9. Practice: OptionsFree
Futures, Forwards, and Swaps
7 lessons
  1. What Futures AreFree
  2. Margin and Leverage in Futures
  3. Commodity and Index Futures
  4. Forwards and Swaps: An Introduction
  5. Hedging with Derivatives
  6. The Major Risks of Derivatives
  7. Practice: Futures, Forwards, and Swaps

Portfolio and planning

Portfolio Theory and Risk

The quantitative tools professionals use to build and judge portfolios, and their limits.

2 modules, 11 lessons · Best after Part 5

Measuring Risk and Return
5 lessons
  1. Expected Return and Standard DeviationFree
  2. Covariance, Correlation, and Beta
  3. Alpha and Benchmark Selection
  4. Sharpe, Sortino, and Maximum DrawdownFree
  5. Value at Risk and Expected Shortfall
Building Portfolios
6 lessons
  1. Modern Portfolio Theory and the Efficient FrontierFree
  2. Factor Exposure
  3. Rebalancing Strategies in Depth
  4. Risk Parity and Other Portfolio Approaches
  5. Simulating a Portfolio's Future
  6. What These Models Miss

Coming later

Being written now. Members get each track as it's published.

  • International Investing and Currencies Investing beyond the US, and how currencies affect your returns.
  • Investing Through Retirement The other half of retirement: turning savings into income that lasts.
  • Real Estate Real estate as an investment: rental property, REITs, commercial property, and the risks of leverage.
  • Crypto and Digital Assets How crypto works, how it's held, taxed, and regulated, and how to evaluate it critically. Risk comes first.
  • Alternative Investments Private equity, venture capital, private credit, hedge funds, commodities, and collectibles.
  • Ethics, Regulation, and Market Integrity The rules that protect investors and markets, and how to use them.
  • Technical Analysis and Trading: A Critical Overview What traders do, what the evidence says, and the costs and risks involved.
  • Research Workshop Everything together: research and value a real company, start to finish, with sources.