Investing Guides

How to find the right guide

The list mixes three kinds of page.

• Comparison guides put two similar things side by side, for example ETF vs. index fund or Brent vs. WTI crude oil. They are the quickest way to settle one specific question.
• Explainers take a single idea and walk through it, such as why bond prices fall when interest rates rise.
• Strategy guides, like core-satellite or Warren Buffett’s 90/10 rule, describe ways of building a portfolio rather than single facts.

If a term in any guide is unfamiliar, the Finance Dictionary Hub gives short definitions.

The list is not a ranking, and the order says nothing about quality. Titles that look cut off are only shortened in this list. The full title appears on the guide itself.

How these guides are written and checked

The guides are signed by our Markets & Investing Desk. It is an editorial team rather than a named individual, and its page is listed with our authors.

The text is drafted with help from AI language models working from our recorded data. Automated checks then compare the text with that record. Text with unsupported claims or banned phrasing is rejected and rewritten. Guides that rely on outside sources list them under “Sources cited on this page”.

Each guide shows the date it was published and the date its text last changed. Those dates move only when the wording changes.

Unlike our brand reviews, guides carry no score. The scoring rules in our methodology apply to prop firms and brokers, not to explanations of how bonds or ETFs work.

What to keep in mind

These guides explain how things work. They cannot tell you what a price or yield will do next. Some topics carry far more risk than others. A leveraged fund, covered in TQQQ vs. QQQ, can lose value much faster than the index it tracks. Stocks, bonds, commodities and futures can all fall in value, so any investment carries a real risk of loss.

For current figures, use the market data sections of the Finance area, because the guides focus on concepts rather than live numbers. Read a guide to understand a term, then make your own decisions based on your situation.