Investing basics
Where an account begins: the broker, the depository, the first trade, and what separates investing from speculation.
20 articles
A first portfolio: what it is assembled fromNot a list of securities but an order of decisions: proportions first, then instruments, and only then specific tickers.
How to tell investing from fraudFive signs, any one of which is enough to stop. None requires financial knowledge.
Saving and investing: different jobs, different instrumentsPreserving and growing are not degrees of the same thing but opposite requirements of an instrument.
Why past returns promise nothingA line from the disclaimer that almost everyone reads and almost nobody applies.
The events calendar: how not to miss a dateRecord dates, put dates, results and meetings in one place. A tool against the one class of error that cannot be undone — a missed deadline.
The dividend calendar: which dates matter and whyAnnouncement, approval, last day to buy, record date, payment — five dates, of which the third is the one to act on.
What market history actually teachesNot prediction, but which portfolio constructions survive a shock and which do not.
How a bubble works: the general patternA technology, a promise, an inflow of money, an explanation that this time is different, and a collapse. The pattern repeats across centuries; the details are new each time.
Regular purchases of equal amountsA method that does not raise returns but removes the need to guess the moment of entry.
The MOEX Russia Index: what it measuresA basket of the largest securities weighted by free float. What enters the index, what drops out of it, and why the index is not the market.2 min
The order book: what is visible in it and what is notThe queue of orders shows intentions, not the future. What information it actually contains.
Why the price of one share says nothing about the companyA share at a hundred roubles is not cheaper than one at a thousand: the price depends on how many pieces the company was divided into.
Eight mistakes of the first yearA list of what almost everyone does and what costs the most. Not one of these mistakes has anything to do with picking a particular security.2 min
The horizon: the one parameter you cannot change by deciding toThe period for which money is invested constrains the permissible instruments more strictly than any appetite for risk.2 min
A reserve outside the market: why it matters more than picking securitiesMoney you are not allowed to invest is the condition on which the investments survive long enough to produce a result.2 min
Real return: how much actually remainedThe question is not how many roubles you now have but what they will buy. The gap between those two answers is inflation.
Compound interest: why it gives nothing in the early yearsA mechanism everyone has heard of and almost nobody holds long enough to see working.
Liquidity: noticed only once it runs outThe ability to sell quickly without conceding on price — a property whose absence is paid for at the least convenient moment.2 min
Market and limit orders: what speed costs youOne fills immediately at any price, the other waits for the price it wants and may never fill. Choosing between them is choosing what to risk.2 min
Fees: small numbers that decide the outcomeWhat a trade actually costs, why a fund's management fee is more dangerous than a trading commission, and how to count costs over a long horizon.2 min