Articles on Stock markets

Buying a stock means taking an ownership position in a publicly traded company. Once you purchase a stock, you...

This article and the ones that follow should give you a solid foundation in the knowledge of stocks and their use as...

There are many services online and custodians that that can facilitate stock trades. Anybody can buy shares of a...

The simplest answer is: to make money! Owning shares of a company’s stock is known as taking a long position

Shareholders of a company are part-owners of the company, and they are entitled to two things: voting for board...

The primary difference between a preferred stock and a common stock is that preferred stockholders have a greater...

Growth stocks tend to be younger companies focused on using capital to fuel more growth, whereas Value stocks have...

Capital appreciation is an increase in the value of an owned stock. Capital appreciation occurs when the market price...

Stock prices change based on the law of supply and demand. Ultimately, as with the price of any good or service, the...

Market capitalization is a measure of a company’s size, in terms of the value of its total outstanding shares

Weighted Average Market Capitalization is a method which gives market cap, for a company, greater weight

The Ex-Date is for a stock indicates the last date of the month where a dividend is payable

Ex-Dividend is a classification on a stock that indicates the dividend payable is to the seller of the stock, not the buyer

Gains on stock investments will be taxable in the current year unless they can be offset with losses

Stocks are inherently risky, and an investor has risk of capital loss. As with most things in life, no risk yields no...

For comparisons of the risk/return ratio of an investment, one must start with a benchmark of a risk-free rate

There are many different forms of ownership of a company in the United States. This subtopic describes some of them

There are plenty of things that you should know about stocks. Feel free to pursue this collection of useful articles

People tend to focus on the mystery of the ‘get-rich-quick’ stock market when they start asking questions about...

‘Buy to Cover’ is a term that applies when an investor buys shares of a security that they had previously sold short

A common stock is the one you’re most familiar with - having a share of ownership in a company

A convertible preferred stock is one that gives the owner the option to convert shares to common stock

Consumer Staples are generally defined as companies that sell goods with inelastic demand

Consumer Discretionary companies are those that sell ‘non-essential’ items, such as clothing retailers

Companies in the Materials sector have business interests in raw materials, such as steel, aluminum, and iron ore

The Energy Sector contains companies that are in the business of discovering, processing, or selling (or all 3)

Stocks in the Healthcare sector are those related to hospital services, medical products and technologies

Utilities stocks are those who deal in services like water, electricity, gas, and other critical infrastructure

Industrials stocks include companies that are in the business of construction and manufacturing

Financial stocks are those that make up the financial sector, which encompasses banks, lenders, wire houses, and others

The Technology sector consists of companies involved in the research, development, and sale of technology products

Telecom is short for telecommunication, and it includes companies involved in the important business of communication

To be “listed” means a stock has been registered and approved for trading on an exchange

A plus tick is a transaction which occurs at a price higher than the transaction before it, also called an uptick

Preferred stock are dividend-paying equity shares issued by corporations, which pays a dividend with a higher priority

Investing in a private placement opportunity is done off-exchange, and usually involves a small number of investors

A secondary offering is the sale of a large block of previously-issued, privately-held stock, requiring SEC registration

A stop order names a price which serves as a trigger point, and when the price is crossed, a market order is entered

A Stop-Limit Order basically automates the preferences of an investor or trader, to reduce exposure to price uncertainty

A stop-loss order will name a price below (above) the market price on a long (short) position, where a sell order will trigger

Value Stock is a stock whose price has been deemed a value buy because of fundamentals, book value, and projected earnings