October 30, 2007
Why Do Share Prices Rise and Fall?
The question in the title might be a little unfair. After all, if share prices are inherently unpredictable (and in one sense, they are - more on that later), there's no answer. Nevertheless, over a period of decades the stock market has had better returns than any other investment - 8-12% depending on various factors and it's one of the most widely studied markets on Earth. With that kind of historical data and brain power to lean on, one should be able to make a few valid observations. Well, here are some. You judge their validity.
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Posted by Stock at 05:28 PM | Comments (0)
October 27, 2007
What's Foreign Depends On Where You Stand
The New York Stock Exchange is not the oldest operating securities market. Though measured by total market capitalization, it's among the largest at $12 trillion - yes that's twelve trillion dollars. The Paris bourse goes back to 1724 and the Deutsche Boerse is even older: founded in 1585.
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Posted by Stock at 05:25 PM | Comments (0)
October 24, 2007
Tips on Buying and Selling Stocks
'SOFT' FACTORS
The first thing to consider about investing isn't technical at all. EPS, P/E, P/S, MA and EMA, RSI and dozens of other indicators are all important. But start at the beginning by looking not outside, but in.
What kind of investor are you? Young with a little capital to risk but a large earnings potential over several decades? Retired, or near it, with a healthy savings but living on limited income?
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Posted by Stock at 05:22 PM | Comments (0)
October 21, 2007
Securities Regulation
Necessary Evil or Valued Partner?
As with the equities markets themselves, complexity reigns in (and reins in) regulation. The history of regulation is almost as old as the securities markets. Stock exchanges, then called bourses, were born in the 15th century in Burgundy's northern trading centers.(Now Belgium. The term 'bourse' is from the Latin 'purse' and is still used for some exchanges.) The Royal Exchange, created in 1566 to compete with Amsterdam, evolved into the current London Stock Exchange.
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Posted by Stock at 05:20 PM | Comments (0)
October 17, 2007
Program Trading - Should You Care?
Probably you know by now that the big boys don't play nice. In the stock market, institutional and other investors with large sums have much more influence on events than the average trader. One way they do that is through the use of something called 'program trading', the purchase (or sale) of a group of stocks, usually by automated buy/sell orders.
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Posted by Stock at 05:17 PM | Comments (0)
October 13, 2007
How To Research Stocks
As with gamblers in Las Vegas so it is with stock investments, 'everybody's got a system'. The goal of research, however, is to make the activity a lot less like gambling and a lot more like investment.
For those without the time or temperament to carry out research themselves, there are full time research services available - for a fee, of course. Full-Service brokerages, such as Merrill Lynch and other large, well-established firms offer research as part of their value to clients.
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Posted by Stock at 05:14 PM | Comments (0)
October 09, 2007
How To Evaluate Stocks
Stock picking is akin to weather prediction - no one can predict with certainty five hours from now if the price will rise or fall, much less five years from now.
Nevertheless, there are indicators that help to reduce the risk and increase the odds of profiting over the long term. After all, historically stocks have returned over 10%, as measured by the growth of the S&P 500.
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Posted by Stock at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)
October 06, 2007
Government Influence on Share Prices
First, some statistics.
At the end of fiscal year 2005, the U.S. Federal debt was approximately $7.9 trillion. Yes, you read that correctly. That's almost eight trillion dollars. That's up from 930 billion in 1980, an increase of more than 849%. $4.5 trillion of that is owed to 'the public' - individual T-Bill and T-Bond (and other) holders, a third Japanese.
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Posted by Stock at 04:34 PM | Comments (0)
October 03, 2007
Equities Trading and the Internet
Once upon a time there was no Internet. OK, now take a deep breath. It's alright because there is one now. For several decades (roughly from 1960 to 1990), large companies such as Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley were able to trade among themselves electronically, but these trades took place over private networks.
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Posted by Stock at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)
October 01, 2007
Do You Need A Broker?
The question in the title is misleading. Most individuals have no choice whether to use a broker, since they're not members of an exchange. Those members (their employees, really) are the only ones who can actually execute a trade and they don't take calls from individual investors.
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Posted by Stock at 04:26 PM | Comments (0)
September 23, 2007
Wise Stock Investing
The title may sound strange to some investors or traders, especially to those that are new to the subject. Some people are convinced that this is the single most important thing for success in the stock market. But the truth is; when it comes to being a successful investor, how much money you make when you're right really isn't all that counts. The simple fact is you won't always be right. Oops. Bad news, right. It's not something you like to hear, but it's true. Isn't it? Even though it's possible that some of you may have met someone, at one time or another, that claimed to be right almost 100% of the time. And if you haven't met that person yet, you might run into him or her somewhere in the future. When you do, be careful. When someone tells you he or she is always right, in general, three scenario's are possible:
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Posted by Stock at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2006
Stock Trading Signals
By following a trading system, market condition will at times be favourable to buy and at other times be favourable to sell. Clearly defined conditions give 'signals' that the educated investor can read and act on. Signals are not as crucial for the long term investor. For these people, market conditions and the value of particular companies can be watched on a daily basis. For day-traders, however, signals are crucial for acting quickly on stock market movements.
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Posted by Stock at 10:06 PM | Comments (0)
