<prompt> Human: Aloha, financiers!Im young professional looking to become more savvy about the stock market. I firmly believe that knowing how to make solid investments is what could potentially, anyway start giving my financial situation the boot in the ass I think it deserves. To that end, I wanted to hit you guys up for knowledge!Any direct advice from the folks here is of course welcome, but what would be just as welcome is references to well-written sources outside of Reddit; I want to get as many views as possible on this topic. And please keep in mind, my experience with finance beyond tracking my incomeexpenses in Excel is limited.So! Wheres a good place to start learning?  <response>: StocksOwning a stock gives you partial ownership in a company. Many stocks are bought and sold on a public market, called a stock exchange. Your stock represents an ownership share in the company, and you will hence subject to certain restrictions own part of the companys business, cash flows and cash reserves when you own the stock. Most companies have different types of stock. Owning a stock usually gives you voting rights for the board of directors or major company decisions, but as an individual investor you rarely get enough voting rights to make a difference. Some companies pay dividends, which just means that a portion of the companys cash reserves are paid out to you at regular intervals. Part of the money in the companys accounts still belongs to you even if the company doesnt pay a dividend, but it wont be paid out for you to use.The market capitalization stock price number of shares of a company should in the long term reflect the expected, risk-adjusted discounted value of all the companys future profits. The stock price constantly fluctuates as the market attempts to determine this number. But the correct value can never be calculated exactly, and stock prices will fluctuate based on the markets whims as well as fundamental factors. Stock prices have historically increased around 7 a year on average, after inflation. But the stock prices fluctuate a lot, and stocks are a high-risk asset class.Mutual fundA very general term for a pool of investors that join their money together in order to purchase assets and earn a return. Often refers to a stock market fund - this is a fund that invests all its money in the stock market. Investing in a good mutual fund will usually give you a better risk profile smaller fluctuations, less risk of catastrophic events than buying individual stocks. But the team managing the fund will charge a fee in return for buying and selling stocks, and this number is very important. Assuming that all fund managers are equally skilled this might or might not be the case, but it will be hard for you to tell the difference, fees are a very important factor in choosing the right fund. The long-term expected return on a well-managed stock portfolio is something around 7 after inflation, so a 2 fee reduces your expected return by a whooping 28. Look for index funds with low fees.BondsA bond represents a loan of money from you to the bond issuer. The bond issuer can be a municipal government, the US Treasury, a company or another entity. There are many different types of bonds, but most pay a fixed interest rate a couple of times a year, are for a large amount say, 1,000,000 and come due in full at a specific date a number of years after being issued e.g. 1, 5, 10, 20 or 30 years. Bonds can be traded on the open market the same way stocks are, and their market value will depend on the perceived default risk of the issuer, the bonds age and the bonds interest rate in relation to prevailing interest rates. When interest rates rise, the market value of existing bonds fall - and vice versa. This is why bonds have been a very good investment class in recent years - interest rates have fallen dramatically.As an individual investor, you will almost never buy bonds directly. You will buy shares in a mutual bond fund. Such a fund will often consist of bonds with varying due dates, providing a risk profile thats better suited for individual investors. Bonds yield a predictable return which is in the long term lower than stocks, but bonds are not risk-free. The issuer could default, or prevailing interest rates could rise which causes the bonds market value to fall. 