|
If a person owns a stock in a company they own a part of that company.
|
|
Stocks are known as shares in a company. If a company issues 100 shares, and you own 10 shares, then you own 10% of the company.
|
|
People buy stocks because they hope that the company will grow and become worth much more money. As the company becomes worth more, the investment in the stock becomes worth more.
|
|
If someone buys (invests money into) a stock and the company value goes up, the investment is worth more. If they want to sell the stock they will make a profit.
|
|
Some stocks go down in value and investors lose money.
|
|
Sometimes an investor buys stocks and they become worthless because the company fails and closes its doors.
|
|
China's stock market is actually called 'The Stock Market'.
|
|
Canada's stock market is electronic. So nobody has to shout on the trading floor, like we often see in movies that show the New York Stock Exchange.
|
|
When the stock market is overvalued it is considered to be a 'bubble', and when the bubble bursts usually people lose a lot of money.
|
|
The New York Stock Exchange was founded in 1792, when several stockbrokers stood on Wall Street under a buttonwood tree and signed an agreement called the 'Buttonwood Agreement' to start the New York Stock Exchange. It wasn't until 1817 that is was officially founded as the NYSE.
|
|
September is usually the poorest performing month in the stock market, often blamed on the vacations that investors take in the summer months that decreases trading.
|
|
When stock market prices are climbing it is referred to as a 'bull market'.
|
|
When stock prices are falling it is referred to as a 'bear market'.
|
|
The world's oldest stock market began in Belgium in 1460.
|
|
The oldest U.S. stock market exchange opened in 1790 in Philadelphia.
|
|
The Bank of New York was the first company to list on the New York Stock Exchange, in 1792.
|
|
To get a seat on the New York Stock Exchange it costs millions of dollars. The highest price paid was $2.65 million, in 1999.
|
|
The NYSE is not the only stock exchange in the U.S. There is also the NASDAQ, located in New York.
|
|
London, England's stock exchange is called the London Stock Exchange Group.
|
|
The stock markets help to raise money for companies when they need capital to expand, and this in turn creates the potential for investors to make money on stocks.
|
