Anabasis
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401Course · Professional

Public Markets

Equities and fixed income, at institutional scale.

The Course

Public markets are the visible layer of the capital system — where price is discovered and information becomes numbers. This course teaches the primary and secondary markets, microstructure, and the fixed-income desk as institutions.

You will finish able to read a new-issue prospectus and describe how a share actually meets its counterparty.

Outcomes
  • 01

    Describe the primary and secondary markets.

  • 02

    Read a prospectus for a new issue.

  • 03

    Explain market microstructure at a working level.

Prerequisites
  • — Program II — Investing.
Pacing

2 weeks · ~5 hours.

  • IModule · ~1.5 hours.

    The primary market

    How new securities come to be.

    New securities are born in the primary market. The process is standardized but not simple.

    What You Will Be Able To Do
    • — Read an S-1.
    • — Describe bookbuilding.
    • — Distinguish IPO, direct listing, and SPAC.
    Why here

    The primary market is where insiders and outsiders meet on defined terms.

    1. 01The IPO processArticle12m
    2. 02Direct listings and SPACsArticle12m
  • IIModule · ~2 hours.

    The secondary market

    Where everything trades.

    Exchanges, ATSes, and dark pools together form the market where shares trade after issuance.

    What You Will Be Able To Do
    • — Explain exchange, ATS, and dark pool.
    • — Read a Level 2 book.
    • — Describe order types and their uses.
    Why here

    Microstructure decides the execution quality of every trade.

    1. 01Exchange, ATS, and dark poolArticle12m
    2. 02Market microstructureArticle12m
  • IIIModule · ~1.5 hours.

    Fixed income at scale

    The bond desk as institution.

    The bond market is OTC by design. The plumbing beneath it explains most of its behavior.

    What You Will Be Able To Do
    • — Distinguish primary and secondary bond issuance.
    • — Explain repo mechanics.
    • — Read a Treasury auction result.
    Why here

    The repo market is where funding lives; understanding it decodes crises.

    1. 01Primary vs. secondary bond marketArticle12m
    2. 02Repo and the plumbingArticle12m
A Note from the Faculty

Household investors who never learn the primary market misread every headline about IPOs.