# Long-Term Investing: Index Funds, Risk and Your Own Behavior > Learn how long-term investing really works and judge any fund, app or plan with numbers. Count real returns after inflation and devaluation, see how far and how long a portfolio can fall, find out why broad, cheap index funds are hard to beat, add up every cost, build a simple stock and bond mix, keep your own behavior from costing you, and check what matters when you invest from Ukraine. Educational, not financial advice. - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing - Free, no sign-up needed to read. ## Modules ### Module 1. What can an investing app honestly promise? Saving, investing and speculating, the real return after inflation and devaluation, compounding with a monthly amount, and expected returns as a range instead of one number. - [Saving, investing, speculating and the real return](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/saving-investing-speculating.md): How saving, investing and speculating differ, and how to turn a nominal return into a real one after inflation and devaluation. - [Compounding with a monthly amount: time beats the rate](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/compounding-monthly.md): How a fixed monthly amount grows with compounding, why starting ten years earlier beats a higher rate, and what a three-year pause costs. - [A range, not a number: twenty-five years of possible paths](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/range-not-a-number.md): Where long-run returns come from, and how to read twenty-five years of simulated paths as a range with a median, a 10th and a 90th percentile. - [Case: rewrite the "12% a year" landing page](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/case-landing-page.md): Turn a bold return promise into an honest range with a horizon, a risk line and a clear disclaimer. ### Module 2. How much can you lose, and for how long? Volatility and a typical bad year, drawdown, recovery and time under water, and how the holding period changes the chance of a loss. - [Volatility and a typical bad year](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/volatility-bad-year.md): Standard deviation of yearly returns, what a typical bad year and the worst year look like for stocks and short bonds. - [Drawdown, recovery and time under water](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/drawdown-recovery.md): Maximum drawdown, the gain needed to get back to the peak and how many months a portfolio can stay below it. - [Holding period and the chance of a loss](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/holding-period.md): How often 1-, 5-, 10- and 20-year periods ended with a real loss, including a market that went nowhere for 13 years. - [Case: the "market is down 30%" message](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/case-down-30.md): Write the in-app message for a deep fall and decide when it should appear. ### Module 3. Why should one fund hold thousands of companies? Company risk vs market risk, why a few big winners drive the returns, and one home country vs the whole world. - [Company risk vs market risk: how many holdings are enough](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/company-vs-market-risk.md): Testing a "Top 10 picks" tab in a model of 200 companies, how fast adding holdings removes company-specific risk, and why market risk never goes away. - [A few big winners: why owning everything catches them](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/few-big-winners.md): Over 20 years most companies do far worse than the index, almost half lose money and a handful make half the gains. Owning the whole market is the only sure way to own those few. - [One country or the world: home markets, currency and stagnation](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/home-or-world.md): Why one small home market is a concentrated bet, how it can go nowhere for 13 years while the world grows, and how much of a hryvnia investor's gain can come from the currency. - [Case: a user with everything in two bets](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/case-concentrated-user.md): A beta user holds 70% in the home index and 30% in a tech theme fund. Check the bet against the synthetic history and design what Zapas shows him, without telling him what to buy. ### Module 4. Can anyone beat the market? The arithmetic of the average investor before and after costs, winners that don't repeat, survivorship, and what market timing costs. - [Before and after costs: the arithmetic of the average investor](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/average-investor-arithmetic.md): Why the average active dollar earns the market before costs and lags it by its costs after them. - [Winners that don't repeat: luck, skill and closed funds](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/winners-dont-repeat.md): Where yesterday's top funds rank later, how dropping closed funds flatters the average and how long it takes to tell skill from luck. - [Timing the market and the best months you miss](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/timing-best-months.md): What staying invested earns vs missing the few best months, and why the best months sit next to the worst. - [Case: "star manager picks" and a "hot theme" tab](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/case-star-picks.md): Decide with fund and index data whether the app should add a star-manager tab and a hot-theme tab. ### Module 5. What does a fund really cost? Every layer of cost from the ongoing fee to FX and tax drag, what a small fee difference does over decades, and how to read a fund factsheet. - [Every layer of cost: fee, spread, FX, platform, tax drag](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/every-layer-of-cost.md): Follow 1,000 dollars through every cost of owning a fund and add them up all-in. - [What 0.2% vs 1.5% does over 10 to 40 years](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/fee-drag-decades.md): How much of the final balance different all-in costs take over decades of monthly contributions. - [Reading a factsheet: index fund, ETF, accumulating, tracking difference, domicile](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/reading-a-factsheet.md): What the lines on a fund factsheet mean and which of them change what you actually pay and get. - [Case: pick the fund line-up from six factsheets](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/case-fund-lineup.md): Choose three funds for the app from six factsheets, comparing them all-in rather than by headline fee. ### Module 6. Building the model portfolios Bonds, yield and rate risk, the stock and bond mix, risk capacity and tolerance, regular amounts vs a lump sum and rebalancing rules. - [Bonds: yield, rate risk and the year both fell](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/bonds-rate-risk.md): What a bond is, why its price moves with interest rates, short vs long bonds, and a year when stocks and bonds fell together. - [Stocks vs bonds: risk capacity, tolerance and the job you have](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/stocks-bonds-mix.md): How different stock and bond mixes behaved, and how horizon, income and nerves decide the mix. - [Regular amounts, a lump sum and rebalancing rules](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/contributions-rebalancing.md): Investing at once vs in monthly parts, and rebalancing yearly, by a band or never: drift and drawdown. - [Case: three model portfolios and the onboarding questions](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/case-model-portfolios.md): Design three model portfolios and the three questions that place a new user in one of them. ### Module 7. The users are the risk (and so are we) The behavior gap between fund and investor returns, loss aversion, checking, herding and bubbles, and a one-page investment policy written in calm weather. - [The behavior gap: fund return vs user return](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/behavior-gap.md): Why the average user earns less than the fund they hold, and who sold at the bottom. - [Losses hurt twice: checking, herding, chasing and bubbles](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/losses-hurt-twice.md): How loss aversion, checking too often and following the crowd lead to selling low and buying high. - [Rules made in calm weather: a one-page investment policy](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/investment-policy.md): Goal, horizon, mix, monthly amount, rebalancing rule, what to do in a fall and a small capped play bucket. - [Case: a beta cohort panic-sold](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/case-panic-cohort.md): Judge an A/B test of a "pause before selling" screen with a small sample and decide what to ship and measure next. ### Module 8. Launching for Ukraine, and the long run The currency of your goals, buying a global fund from Ukraine, taxes, declaring income and wartime risks, and a one-page plan for the long run. - [The currency of your goals and the safe part at home](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/currency-of-goals.md): A hryvnia goal vs a dollar world fund under devaluation scenarios, and keeping the safe part in the currency you will spend. - [Buying a global fund from Ukraine: domicile, broker, protection, FX](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/buying-from-ukraine.md): What to check before you invest from Ukraine: a regulated broker, investor protection, fund domicile, withholding tax and conversion costs. - [Taxes, declaring income and wartime risks](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/taxes-and-war-risks.md): Tax on investment income, declaring foreign income, currency rules under martial law, and documents and access for your family. - [Capstone: the launch memo and your own one-page plan](https://productovi.com/courses/long-term-investing/capstone-launch-memo.md): Write the launch memo for the app and your own one-page investment plan, including how to draw money down later.