Why rules beat opinions
Four short lessons on the most expensive mistakes in investing, and the systematic alternative. Built on real market data, with one practical action at the end of every lesson.
Lesson 1 plays right here. Lessons 2-4 need a free account: no credit card, log in once and stay logged in.
Module 1 · Why rules beat opinions Free
5:12
Lesson 1
Why this course existsReturns are not the hard part. Keeping them is. Why a rules-based approach beats opinions, and what you will build in this course.
5:17🔒
Lesson 2 · free account
The behaviour gapInvestors earn less than the very funds they hold, often one to two points a year. Where that gap comes from, and the only defence that works.
5:09🔒
Lesson 3 · free account
Nobody knows the futureHow professional year-ahead forecasts have done, why the tails decide everything, and the question that replaces "what will happen?".
5:47🔒
Lesson 4 · free account
What systematic investing isRules, tested, applied mechanically. The three numbers that judge any strategy, and four questions that separate a real backtest from marketing.
Module 2 · Return engines
Premium · full courseWhere returns come from: cash and inflation, interest rates, the seven asset classes, total return and realistic expectations, and how markets move in cycles. Included in Premium and in the full course.
4:21🔒
Lesson 1 · Premium
Why cash is not safeCash is safe from crashes but not from inflation: $100 from 1971 buys about $12 today. What each engine earned above inflation, and the jobs cash is good for.
4:38🔒
Lesson 2 · Premium
Interest rates, the gravity of marketsWhy higher rates lower every price, what duration means for your bonds, and why the "safe" asset fell almost 48% after 2020.
4:26🔒
Lesson 3 · Premium
Seven asset classes, seven enginesWhere each asset class gets its return from, and how stocks, bonds, gold, commodities, real estate, currencies and crypto compared since 2008.
4:09🔒
Lesson 4 · Premium
Total return and realistic expectationsWhat total return means, how compounding turns 8% into ten times your money in 30 years, what history really delivered, and four red flags.
4:23🔒
Lesson 5 · Premium
Markets move in cyclesThe economic cycle, the three US recessions since 1993, and why the market usually turns before the economy does.
Who made this course
Dr. Harry Hamann, founder of InvestWealth: doctorate in mechanical engineering, years in automotive development ("test before you trust"), MBA from Mannheim Business School and more than 15 years of investing across asset classes. The lessons are narrated by our AI narrator; every number is checked against the data in the Research Terminal.
The full course
Modules 1 and 2 are the first of eight modules of Mastering Investments, The Systematic Investor's Course: return engines, risk, trend signals, portfolios and your own monthly process. Module 1 is free; the full course is included in Premium.
About the full course →Educational content, not investment advice. Strategy figures in the lessons are hypothetical backtests; past performance is not a guide to the future.