Things I've wanted to understand about investing
I'm learning about investing, and I've discovered that understanding something once doesn't mean I'll still remember it six months later.
So I started writing things down. When I run into a concept I want to understand properly, I tend to dig into it — usually further than I originally intended: what it is, why it exists, what's underneath it, where it breaks, and what I had wrong the first time.
This is where those deep dives live. I'm building it mainly so I can reconstruct this understanding later without starting over. It's public because someone searching for the same answer might find it useful.
There's no curriculum and no course. It's a growing collection of things I wanted to understand.
Buffered ETFs
What are you actually giving up in exchange for downside protection?
Buffered ETFs sound simple: absorb some of the downside in exchange for limiting some of the upside. Then you look underneath them and the questions start.
- Where does the buffer actually come from?
- Why is there a cap, and why does it change every year?
- What happens when the market falls past the buffer?
- What happens if you buy halfway through the outcome period?
- How do the options underneath the fund create the payoff?
- What are you giving up in exchange for the protection?
That's the only subject so far. The next one gets added when I actually research it — I don't know yet what it will be. If there's something you think is worth digging into, suggest it.
How this works
Deep dive
"Teach me this." Plain-language explanation first, then a worked example, then the mechanics, then the math and the edge cases. You should be able to stop reading at any point and still have gained something.
Reference
"I already learned this — remind me how it works." Definitions, formulas, the numbers that matter, and the mistakes I made the first time. This is the part I'm really building the site for.
I'm not an investment professional, and I'm not claiming any of this is authoritative. Where I've simplified something, I've tried to say so. Where I got something wrong and later corrected it, I've tried to leave the correction visible — that's usually the most useful part. If you spot an error, please tell me.