12 days of Christmas sharemarket learning

Fri 06 December 2024

ASX

Investor Update

Our guide to help first-time investors get started in the market – in just an hour a day.

Key points

This list is designed to help people who want to learn about the sharemarket before they start investing.
The tasks on this list are curated from the ASX website.
The list is broken into a number of short tasks, including reading materials, podcasts, videos and online courses.

Let’s imagine your New Year Resolution for 2025 is to start investing. But you know little, if anything, about the sharemarket or where to begin.

Don’t despair. The ASX Australian Investor Study 2023 found that lack of investing confidence and knowledge are some of the main reasons why almost 10 million adult Australians do not currently invest.

Investor education is a big part of moving from the ranks of non-investor to investor, and potentially building long-term wealth.

With that in mind, ASX Investor Update has curated 12 ideas to help first-time investors learn about the sharemarket over summer. We’ve given our list a Christmas riff, drawing inspiration from The 12 Days of Christmas.

Unlike that festive tune, you don’t need to start the list on Christmas Day or complete it over 12 days. Nor will you need to spend a day on each task – summer is too short for that! Each set of tasks takes roughly an hour.

You just need to commit to one hour a day of sharemarket learning, whenever it suits you best. If you’re motivated, you might complete all the tasks in a day or two. Or you might learn at a gentler pace over January and beyond. It’s up to you.

Before we begin, a few caveats. First, our list is designed for beginners in share investing and assumes no prior investment knowledge.

Second, our list does not provide advice or a structured sharemarket education program. We are simply curating information already available on the ASX website.

Third, the best way to learn about the market is through experience and lifelong learning. Twelve hours of sharemarket learning is just the start.

Fourth, we’ve tried to make this list fun, varied and with lots of short learning tasks across various multimedia. If you want heavy, complex and advanced sharemarket material, this list is not for you.

Caveats aside, here are 12 suggested days of Christmas sharemarket learning. For easy reference, we’ve numbered each task according to the day and as a list of all 41 tasks over 12 days (in case you want to return to any).

Day 1: Familiarise yourself with the ASX website

The ASX website has lots of information for first-time investors – and is a gateway to ASX-listed companies and share prices. Here are your first five tasks:

1.1	Read the Start Investing page
1.2	Read the Goals and Risks box on that page and visit Learn More about Goals and Risks. Read the four items on that page: Your Investment Goals, Investment Advice, Investment Strategy and Product Disclosure Statements
1.3	Read Investing in Shares
1.4	Visit Frequently Asked Questions. Consider the list and choose one question that interests you. Read the answer.
1.5	Visit the Brochures page. ASX’s new 3-part series has detailed information on starting an investment journey. You don’t need to read this now, but it’s good to know where this information exists, if you want to delve deeper.

Day 2: Learn the language of the market

A basic understanding of some key sharemarket terms can aid your learning journey. Here are five tasks to learn some oft-used sharemarket terms.

2.6	Visit ASX Glossary. Scroll down the list, so you can see the available information and how to find key terms.
2.7	View these terms: ASX All Ordinaries Index, S&P/ASX 200 Index.
2.8	View these terms: Bull market, Bear market.
2.9	View these terms: Capital Growth, Dividend, Earnings, Market Capitalisation
2.10	Scroll through the Glossary again and choose three investment terms you’ve heard before but aren’t sure what they mean.

Day 3: Listen to an ASX podcast / watch an ASX video

After the readings on days one and two, it’s time to sit back and listen to an ASX Podcast – or go for a walk and listen to it, if you prefer! Bear in the mind the date when listening to an ASX Podcast, as some information could be slightly dated and superseded by the latest market events. Here is our suggested podcast you can listen to using your favourite podcasting service.

3.11	Listen to ‘Investment Themes in Today’s Global Markets’.
3.12	Vist the ASX YouTube Page. Choose a short video that looks interesting.

Day 4: Access market information

Knowing where to access trusted, daily sharemarket information is integral to one’s investment journey. The ASX website provides a range of data on market performance. These tasks will help you learn how to access market information.

4.13	Visit Cash Market Prices to get the latest information on the sharemarket.
4.14	Chart the S&P/ASX 200 Index over 1 day, 1 month and 6 months (to do so click on the down arrow next to ‘1 day’ at the right of the chart).
4.15	View the top 50 ASX-listed companies by market capitalisation
4.16	View sector performance (at the bottom of the page). View asset sector performance for 1 day, 1 month and six months, using the down arrow.

Day 5: Access ASX-listed company information

In this age of misinformation and disinformation, it’s never been more important to access company information from trusted sources, such as the ASX website. These tasks will help you start to research ASX-listed companies.

5.17	Visit Company Directory. Sort companies alphabetically, by industry and by market capitalisation. Search for a company that interests you by entering its name at the top of that page. If you can’t think of a company, search for Telstra Group (ASX: TLS), as an example. Pay special attention to the three-letter ASX Code above the company’s name, which for Telstra is TLS. Knowing the ASX Code of a company will help with other information searches.
5.18	Find the ASX code for the following ASX-listed companies: Commonwealth Bank of Australia, BHP Group, Woolworths, CSL, Wesfarmers or any other listed company that you may be interested in. Type their name in ‘Search for a company by code or name’ at the top of the page.
5.19	Visit Today’s Company Announcements to see which ASX-listed entities have released information today.
5.20	Visit Historical Announcements to search for previous company information. Search for a company that interests you by entering its ASX Code. Change the time frame to access announcements released during the past six months. Using Telstra Group as an example, scroll down to 15 August 2024 to see the media release accompanying its full-year results. This is an example of how to read a company’s earnings result.
5.21	Now search for a summary of information on an ASX-listed company. At the top of the page, enter the ASX Code of the company that interests you, or use Telstra (ASX: TLS) again. Click on the company name to get a range of information.

Day 6: Learn from charts and price data

Before investing in shares, investors often look at share-price charts to understand a stock’s performance, or to compare it to others. Charting tools on the ASX website make it easy to create charts over different timeframes.

6.22	Choose five companies that interest you. Search for the first stock by entering its ASX Code on the ASX website. Again, using Telstra Group as an example, pay particular attention to the share price chart.
6.23	Compare the company’s price performance to the S&P/ASX 200 Index. Click on ‘Comparison’ in the top left-hand corner of the chart (see chart below) and highlight S&P/ASX 200 Index.

Source: ASX

6.24	Now view the chart over 1, 5 and 10 years. To do so, select the ‘3 Month’ button at the top of the chart and highlight the selected years.
6.25	Now add in the company’s dividend yield (if it pays a dividend). Select ‘Indicator’ on the chart menu, and then Dividend Yield. Look at how the company’s dividend yield has changed over time, through the bottom section on the chart.

Source: ASX

6.26	Compare the five stocks you chose to the S&P/ASX 200 index over 1, 5 and 10 years. Consider if the companies have outperformed or underperformed the ASX 200 Index over different time periods, using share price charts.

Day 7: ASX online shares course – part 1

By now, you’ve familiarised yourself with the ASX website, learned basic terms and how to access market, company and charting information. Now it’s time to expand your learning through the free ASX online shares course. Designed for beginners, the course has 10 modules, each taking 10-15 minutes. Because it’s the holidays, aim to do a few modules each day over three days.

7.27	Do the first four modules on ‘What is a share’, ‘Why and how to invest’, and ‘Risks and benefits of shares’ and ‘What to consider in an investment’.

Day 8: ASX online shares course – part 2

8.28	Now do the next three modules of the ASX online shares course: ‘How to buy and sell shares’, ‘Record keeping’ and ‘Market indices and market sectors’.

Day 9: ASX online shares course – part 3

9.29	Now complete the ASX online shares course through the final three modules: ‘Sharemarket investment strategies’, ‘Fundamental analysis’ and ‘Technical analysis’.

Day 10: Reflect on your investment goals

After all that learning through the ASX online shares course, it’s time to reflect on your investment goals with some beginners articles from our popular monthly ASX Investor Update e-newsletter. Here are five beginner articles to read:

10.30	Read ‘Six Questions for First-Time Investors to Consider’
10.31	Read ‘Never too Early to Learn about Investing’
10.32	Read ‘Look behind the label’.
10.33	Read ‘Avoiding Portfolio Diworsification’.
10.34	Read 'How Women are Leaning In to Become More Active Investors’.

Day 11: Put your learning into practice

Consider signing up for the next ASX Sharemarket Game. This free, online, simulated game is one of the world’s great sharemarket trading games – and a great way to learn about investing before you start. Participants receive $50,000 of virtual cash to invest in the sharemarket and compete against others.

11.35	Save the date for the next ASX Sharemarket Game - registrations will open in February 2025.
11.36	Consider setting up a portfolio watchlist on the ASX website to track companies that interest you. The watchlist could include stocks you own, may want to buy or others you wish to follow. This short ASX Video explains how to set up a watchlist.

Day 12: Sign up for ongoing ASX information

Through newsletters, events, podcasts and videos, ASX provides a range of ongoing investor education and market insights for subscribers. This information can potentially aid your investment education journey. Here are five tasks:

12.37	If you haven’t already, consider subscribing to ASX Investor Update to receive free monthly information for beginner, intermediate and advanced investors. Feel free to share ASX Investor Update with friends or family if you think they might benefit from the information (or you want someone to have fun learning with!).
12.38	Subscribe to The Ideas Exchange by ASX podcast using your favourite podcasting service.
12.39	Access free broker reports through the ASX Equity Research Scheme.
12.40	Consider registering for the next ASX Investor Day, the ASX’s premier one-day education event for retail investors.
12.41	Watch other on-demand videos from ASX events, such as ASX CEO Connect or the ASX Small and Mid-Cap Conference.

Conclusion

So, there you have it. Twelve hours of Christmas sharemarket learning, designed to be done in an hour a day while investors are on holidays.

The 41 tasks on this list won’t turn any investor into an expert and they do not guarantee investment success. Investing is a long journey and even the best investors learn new things – and make occasional mistakes – along the way.

Completing this list, however, could aid sharemarket confidence and knowledge and help new investors decide if they are ready to take the next step, on their own or with the support of a licensed financial adviser.

DISCLAIMER

The views, opinions or recommendations of the author in this article are solely those of the author and do not in any way reflect the views, opinions, recommendations, of ASX Limited ABN 98 008 624 691 and its related bodies corporate (“ASX”). ASX makes no representation or warranty with respect to the accuracy, completeness or currency of the content. This content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice or investment advice. Independent advice should be obtained from an Australian financial services licensee before making investment decisions. The information has been prepared without considering your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on information in this article consider its appropriateness and accuracy, regarding your objectives, financial situation and needs. Do further research of your own and/or seek personal financial advice from a licensed adviser before making any financial or investment decisions based on this article.