| The history of the Stock Market can be traced back | | | | Exchange Commission was formed in 1934. |
| over 200 years. It has its roots in the colonial | | | | Today, the markets have grown to unprecendented |
| government who started selling government notes to | | | | levels with daily volume in the billions of shares. The |
| finance war efforts, promising to pay it back at a | | | | quantity of products, stocks and options, available to |
| later date with profits. | | | | trade offers something for everyone. |
| Around the same time, private banks saw this | | | | Until recently, investors needed to call a broker on |
| method as a way to raise money by issuing stocks | | | | the phone to have a stock order placed. But with the |
| or shares of the company. This created a new | | | | advent of technology and the increased flow of |
| market and a new form of investing money. At first | | | | information on satellite and the internet, investors can |
| this was a hobby for the rich, but later the potential | | | | trade on-line by first setting up an account with an |
| to make money by the average person was realized. | | | | on-line broker. |
| In 1792, a meeting by 24 large merchants resulted in | | | | There is a lot to know when investing in stocks like |
| the creation of what is known today as the New | | | | company management, PE ratios, revenues, profits, |
| York Stock Exchange. The merchants agreed at the | | | | capitalization, etc. These are called fundamental |
| meeting to meet daily on Wall Street to trade stocks | | | | indicators that many analysts will study to determine |
| and bonds. | | | | the value of a company and the likelihood of future |
| The United States experienced a period of rapid | | | | profits and ultimately increases in the companys |
| growth in the 1800's and companies realized that | | | | stock price. |
| investors would be interested in buying ownership in | | | | There are a host of technical indicators that traders |
| a company through the issuance of stock certificates. | | | | will study to determine short term directions in stock |
| This allowed the companies to raise funding for | | | | price like moving averages, stocastics, relative |
| expansion activities. | | | | strength, momentum, moving average convergence |
| As the Industrial Revolution changes America, it also | | | | divergence indicators, bollinger bands and a host of |
| changed the face of the Stock Market. People | | | | others. |
| started realizing they could profit from re-selling | | | | Investors, that is people who buy a security and hold |
| shares of stock and thus a secondary speculators | | | | for a long period of time, like years, tend to want to |
| market was formed. | | | | know more about a companies fundamental |
| While the NYSE listed shares of the largest | | | | indicators. Traders who buy and sell securities for |
| companies in the country, more people wanted to | | | | short term profits tend to study technical indicators |
| invest in the stock market but couldn't afford the | | | | and give technical analysis more weight then |
| larger companies. Smaller companies joined a stock | | | | fundamental analysis. |
| market that eventually became known as the | | | | Learning about the stock market can seem |
| American Stock Exchange. | | | | overwhelming at first, but there are many resources |
| The huge growth of the stock exchanges attracted | | | | available at books stores and on-line that can be |
| more and more participants and it was decided that | | | | valuable learning tools. Also, there are many |
| regulation to protect investors was needed. It wasn't | | | | newsletters that will "feed" subscribers top stock |
| until after the 1929 crash that the Securities and | | | | choices and can be extremely valuable and profitable. |