Canadian Securities Course (CSC)

I’ve received about half a dozen e-mails recently from readers who wanted my opinion on the value of the Canadian Securities Course (CSC) and the value of a BComm. I just thought I’d share with everyone as this seems to be a common question.

To be honest I think that I learned more from my BComm than the CSC. However, I don’t think it’s necessary to have either in order to be a successful amateur investor. Most of what I know about the market and stocks has come from reading on my own (buffet, graham, foster etc…) and from listening to experts and talking with friends who share my interest in investing. In my opinion what you need to be a successful amateur investor is a passion for investing, a defined strategy and a genuine interest in the markets, securities valuation and retirement planning. That being said I would recommend the CSC for people without a background in finance as it does provide a general introduction to securities valuation... but be warned there is also a lot of regulatory info in the course that I didn’t really find very useful. Compared to a University exam I found the course easy and if you put a little time into it I don’t think you should have any problems as the regulatory info is just memory work and the math involved in securities valuation (ratios, time value of money etc...) is fairly simple.