Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Learning about the stock market

Stock markets world over are considered to be the best earner of the returns on the money. That said not everybody who invests in the stock markets becomes rich like Warren Buffet . However millions of people have become rich to some extent by the stock markets or at least they have earned above average returns on the money they invested.

Next is the issue of getting your feet wet in the stock markets before you take the plunge into the choppy waters of the stock markets. The best advice they have given on the stock markets is that it is not for the faint hearted. Also, the other advice is that stock markets carry more risk than any other type of investments but as they say higher the risk higher the gain. If you need to learn about the functioning of the stock markets then your best bet is to actually trade yourself. Your next step should be to open up an account at either an on-line trading company or brokerages or go to a full service broker which can guide through the whole investment process.

If want to learn the stock market without the hassles opening up a brokerage account then your best bet is to buy a stock market simulator software or a stock market basics learning DVD which can teach a few basics about the stock market without investing in the stock market.

Another factor to consider while learning the stock market is that you have to be very cautious in the early stages so as to learn the basics and not make any big gambles on the market. Those gambles and making huge bets that you hear people made and got huge amounts of profits will come later once you have got perfection in the art of picking the right stocks.

Online stock brokers explained - a guide to using online stock brokers

Stock market brokers are the people who buy and sell stocks for investors. As an investor it is very difficult for you to TRADE a share or any amount of stock on your own. To trade stocks, you must go through a broker. Brokers have actual licenses that allow them to buy and sell shares of stock. They also have much quicker access to the stock market exchanges than you or I do.

How it works is this, let us say you want to buy five hundred shares of IBM's stock. However you personally cannot buy IBM shares of stock, we just cannot purchase stock, the same way we buy groceries at store.

To purchase our shares of IBM stock, We sign up with a discount online broker. The discount online broker would then purchase or buy stocks of on our behalf. When we're ready, we would then call the broker or go online on a computer and sell the stocks. The process of buying and selling stocks is called trading.

For the brokers service, they take a small percentage of every transaction that you do in the stock market. So when you buy a stock, the broker earns a commission. When you sell a stock, the broker also takes a commission on the sale.

There are different types of brokers, but the best broker especially for the beginner or intermediate or even advanced investor, is the online discount broker. Many online discount brokers allow you to trade stocks very cheaply in the stock market. This reduces the overall cost of trading and increases your net profits when you actually sell the stock.

The capital asset pricing model of stock investing (CAPM)

In 1990 Harry Markowitz, Merton Miller, and William Sharpe shared the first Nobel Prize in the very young area of financial economics. The Nobel committee recognized Harry Markowitz for developing portofolio theory, Miller for the theory of corporate finance, and Sharpe for the Capital Asset (stock market) Pricing Model also known as CAPM.

CAPM was the crowning acheivment of theoretical economists bent on proving that markets are efficient and work together mathematically with the precision and elegance of a Rolex watch. In the 1980s, researching financial economists began to notice a slew of empirical results that are not consistent with the view that stock market returns were determined in accordance with CAPM and stock market efficiency.

It is useful for you to understand what CAPM is because you will read or hear about it as you progress as a stock market investor. CAPM is a regression model designed to separate out the general stock market price changes from price changes specific to a given stock. The general stock market price change is called unsystematic risk. An investor can get the same return as the general stock market buying a mutual fund that is indexed to the stock market such as the Vanguard 500 fund (symbol VFINX). For this reason the amount of profit you receive on a specific stock that is as much as the stock market indexes is said to not be priced into the stock in terms of the risk you are taking.

The amount you make or lose on a given stock as compared to the stock market averages is considered to be priced by investors to compensate for the additional risk you take in buying stock in a single company instead of a fund indexed to the stock market. The profit or loss that you receive as compared to the stock market is called systematic risk. The capital asset pricing model measures systematic risk with a regression coefficient called beta. When I talk about beta now you know what it is; it is nothing more than a measure of additional potential return an investor should receive for purchasing a single stock based on how risky that stock is. I want to emphasize that CAPM is based on the notion that the stock market efficiently translates all information known about the stock market into stock prices for stock investing purposes.

Stock exchange

Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange are major Stock Exchange is India. Like India there is uncountable investor's puts their money to grow. Stock market is also one of those places which provide growth to investor's money. Some of investors who want make money fast as they want they comes to stock market. Some times it is not shows growth due to some reason or factors otherwise it best way to give a chance to your money. Any stock market is also decides its countries growth u saw also in this world those country who have good stock market record they are leading.

Stock market always stay ahead from other resources if investments. It gives better return and as well as surety of your money but not all time because there are some factors are present at that place who really don't want that stock market do well.

Some times this market become tumble down and investors get fear by it but if they keep patience they can make good money because according to market rule u should go for buying in crush time because when the market go up you can get good profit form those buying which u done at tumble time.

Now our stock exchange provides other facilities like online buying or selling.It really helps to investor who are stay from stock market just because of time.

In these days Stock Exchange Board Of India also keep watching on Stock Exchange because in our past we saw some most powerful cases of cheating that why Stock Exchange Board Of India working for those investors who puts their blooded money in the market.

The perfect cheap stock investment

When you are entering the wild world that is called the stock market exchange, the first thing you need to do, is some stock market exchange research, specifically about the cheap stocks that you have your eye on. When it comes to buying stock in the stock market the best stocks to buy are the cheap ones!

When you buy your first stocks in the stock market and buy them cheap the more shares that you have in the stock the more profit you are going to build, and from there you can build up your profit and start buying more expensive stocks, and truly build your money! Get online and check around and find out which online stock websites offer the cheapest shares and let them do the rest of the work for you.

Keep checking your stocks every few days or every week and see where you stock is at and how it is progressing. Do not put all of your money into a single stock. Right now, in the market the cheapest stocks right now that are doing the best are just to name a few, Hansen Natural(organic juices), Apple, and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. Investing in these stocks is a good way to go if you are just starting out, they are well known names in the market and they are doing remarkably well in the market despite the fact that the stock market is in such a shaky condition, just check it out and consider all the possibilities!