There are four ways to become a financial analyst. One is by enrolling in a 4-year finance course in college.
The second is by reading finance books and teaching yourself the core principles of financial analysis.
The third is enrolling in an online financial course hosted by a professional.
Fourth is by claiming you’re a guru, also known as faking it till you make it…lol. Which of these four options do you consider the best way to learn and become a financial analyst?
The first option is the conventional way of getting into finance, but it takes a long time and costs more than other options.
And the reality is that most busy professionals may not find the time to go to a college campus to and fro throughout their studies.
The second option is good, but its limitation is your scope of knowledge and lacking practical application of what you read.
The third option of online course certification in financial analysis is better for 70 percent of investors or wanna-be financial analysts.
With that said, there are tons of financial analysis courses online for you to choose from. And that presents a problem – what are the ten (10) best financial analysis courses in 2024?
This article will consider ten of the best financial analysis courses, what they offer, course duration, and cost. But first, let’s consider the financial analysis and what a financial analyst does.
What Are Financial Planning, Financial Analysis, and Financial Statement Analysis
Financial analysis is gathering past financial data, cleaning it, and making sense of it to deduce valuable insights that will help the investor or a team of executives make good decisions.
Financial analysis has the more technical aspect, which includes data analysis, data visualizations, etc., and the less technical part, which includes financial statement analysis.
A financial statement is considered a less technical part of financial analysis because it simply requires the application of economic fundamentals to understand financial statements (for example, profit/loss statement, balance sheet, and income/expenditure statement).
It’s only reasonable to conclude that a financial analyst’s role is to analyze and deduce information from financial statements and past financial data. Financial analysts are one of the most desired job positions in the financial services industry.
They are not only employed by exchange brokers, investment firms, and hedge funds but also by insurance companies, agro companies, manufacturing and logistics companies, and even Real Estate firms.
So the role of a financial analyst fits into all industries hence making it one of the most lucrative and highest-paying careers.
Interestingly, the growth of all data science-related jobs has increased the career growth prospect to 11% between 2016 and 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Best Financial Analysis Courses
The Complete Financial Analyst Course 2024
The course is hosted by 365 Courses, who have first-hand experience in data science, business analysis, financial planning, and analysis. They have trained recruits of fortune 500 companies such as CitiBank, Apple, and Paypal.
The instructor, Ken Jee himself, is well versed in the field, possessing several years of experience and the ability to convene information in the simplest way possible.
This course has a 30-day money-back guarantee, but as you may guess, almost no one regrets purchasing this top-rated Udemy course. The Complete Financial Analyst Course 2024 is perfect for beginners and advanced professionals as it has a stepwise progression approach.
The Complete Financial Analyst Training & Investing Course
This is one of the highest-rated courses on Udemy, hosted by Chris Haroun. His vast experience as a former Goldman Sachs employee, founder of, and multiple cover magazine icons on Forbes makes him adequately suited to teach this financial analysis course.
The course comprises 226 video lessons and 22 hours of rich video content. Small pdf notes, case studies, and excel sheets help students learn better and practice some exercises independently.
The Complete Financial Analyst Training & Investing Course expatiates on about fourteen different financial analyst job roles. It teaches Excel, basic economic policies and laws, company evaluation, IPOs, stock analysis, and portfolio management.
The course is well-packed, so to sign up for it, click here.
Excel Crash Course: Master Excel for Financial Analysis
Microsoft Excel is an essential tool in financial analysis and financial planning. This Excel Crash Course will introduce one to Excel and teach best practices for building financial models, data visualization, and efficient data analysis.
The instructor of this course, Tim Vipond, is an experienced certified financial analyst and the CEO of the Corporate Finance Institute. His company educates people to become certified financial analysts and investors.
The course walks you through essential Excel functions and operations, especially those closely related to the financial services industry. This is one of the best financial planning courses, with the valuable video content in Excel for financial analysis.
Tim also went the extra mile by laying out his best advice and approach to the capital markets. The course is 3.5 hours long with about more than 20 lessons.
Sign up here, and you may receive a 70-95% discount via the Udemy coupon code.
Mastery in Financial Statement Analysis
This is the best intermediate to advanced level course on financial analysis, financial statement analysis, and financial planning. After conducting financial statement analysis, it features lessons on data preprocessing & manipulation, trend analysis, and data visualization.
Click here to find out more about the course.
Stock Market Investment: Applied Financial Analysis
This is a highly recommended online financial analysis course for investors. The course is comprehensive, providing you with the basics up to the advanced parts of financial data analysis modeling and prediction.
It details all the essentials of financial statement analysis, frank business analysis, and company valuation. It teaches a simple approach to financial maths plus important accounting principles to apply while conducting financial analysis.
Click here to find out more about the course.
Python for Financial Analysis and Algorithmic Trading
This Udemy course is perfect for those who want to take their career as financial analysts to the next level. Python is the most versatile programming language used in data processing and analysis.
The GGplot, Matplotlib, and Seaborn libraries are optionally used to visualize analyzed data into consumable graphs.
Therefore, the course will teach the fundamentals of Python programming language and how to apply the all-important Panda and Numpy libraries while analyzing financial data.
You can click here to find out more about the course.
Financial Modeling: Build a Complete DCF Valuation Model by Udemy
Financial analysts use statistical models and valuation models to deduce what the trends are. This online course is meant explicitly for investment bankers and corporate finance practitioners.
It teaches participating students the step-by-step process of building a discounted cash flow (DCF) model to value a company. 365 Careers host the course and aptly uses animations and in-course mini-exercises.
It is two hours long in total, and as expected, it has lifetime access plus a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Click here to find out more about the course.
How to Analyze a Wholesale Deal in Real Estate
Although it has a real estate appeal, it is still one of the best Udemy courses in financial and planning analysis. The course instructor Simon He has a good track record of making wise investments in real estate and other money markets.
In this course, he explains the various steps taken while analyzing and evaluating whether or not a real estate deal is worth it. students with no prior experience can enroll due to the simplified ways students learn how to analyze real estate wholesale deals worth millions.
If you don’t like the course after a few days of registering, you can request back your payment provided 30 days haven’t elapsed.
Financial Engineering and Artificial Intelligence in Python 2024
This is quite an advanced course for the numerous professionals utilizing Python libraries and machine learning (component of AI) models. The course is taught in a fun way by the instructors from Lazy Programmer Inc. Click here to look at the course preview.
Investment Analysis & Portfolio Management – Core Finance
Investment Analysis & Portfolio Management is an essential set of skills every financial expert must possess. You can begin learning by clicking here.
FAQs
You must be mindful of the price, the student reviews and ratings, and the instructor’s qualifications.
Yes, you would be given a “Certificate of Completion” after watching all the video content and doing all exercises.
You can learn from free resources on YouTube, blog posts, and books. But the advantage of taking a financial course online is the organization at which points are presented or deliver
