In the world there are millions of companies, some are big and some are small, but at least three quarters of them are in the stock market. There are many stock markets but the five biggest ones are NASDAQ, NYSE, Shanghai Stock Exchange, Japan Exchange Group and Euronext. The similarities between these markets are what they all have inside, such as the shares, stocks, mutual funds, ticker symbols, etc. Shares and stocks are different ways for a person to own a part of a company. The only difference between shares and stocks are that shares are fully paid and stocks are just partially paid. The people who buy the stocks, the shareholders, get dividends for the share or the stock that they paid for. Dividends are the payments that are paid by a company to its’ shareholders.
Another part of the stock market are the mutual funds which is a type of company that pools investor’s money and makes with it multi- types of investments. The mutual funds are managed by a professional investment manager who buys and sells securities so that the fund will grow and succeed. A system that is used by both stocks and mutual funds are ticker symbols. Ticker symbols are 3-5 letters that represent a stock or a mutual fund. A stock that has 3 letters is basically listed and traded on an exchange. However, a stock that has 4 letters belongs to the NASDAQ, which means that they are used for securities. Finally, a mutual fund is represented with 5 letters that end with an X.
There are many factors to consider if you want to invest in the stock market. The main factors are supply and demand. These complete each other because while supply is the amount that is available to you, demand is the amount that is wanted. These two affect the stock market because when there is demand, it means that people would like to buy the supply of a company and eventually that means that people will want to invest in this particular company that is currently successful. There are many pros and cons for investing in the market. One pro is that you can make a great amount of money or that it can even just give you an extra income if you are lucky and know how the investing system works. Other pros are that it keeps you aware of the economy world that we live in and helps you plan your future better. An additional pro is that you can invest in many stocks at the same time, and this reduces the risk of investing. Some cons are that stocks can fall and rise dramatically and without any warning and there is no guaranteed return for the shareholder. Another con is that it takes time to pick out a stock that you think will continue to rise in the future. The stock market is a risky place that can make your wishes come true or devastate you completely.
I invested in Pizza Domino's because it is a successful company in Israel and in the whole world. I specifically know that it is very popular in Israel because every Tuesday and Friday after scouts the whole clan will go and eat pizza there. It also sells food that is popular all over the world in a good price. My second investment was in gap because it's product's demand is big and the clothes are day to day clothes which is very needed. Also, the clothes that they sell are high quality products, which leads to the high possibility of them continuing to succeed. My last but not least stock was Apple, which I invested in because technology is used by everyone even if they are just children who are playing with an iPad or business men who are on their phone most of the time. Apple's supplies have a huge demand and are popular all over the world.
The stock market is a place of up and down, doubt and thinking through, exactly like my project.There I bought many stocks, some I traded and some were kept until the end. My best stock had been Domino's Pizza, which I bought already in September. It had given me a great amount of profit, up until 264.65$, and helped me stay on the green side of the chart. My second bet stock was Walt Disney, which was on the green side (positive side) for most of the project and granted me a steady amount of money every week.However, my worst stocks were Google and Amazon. These two stocks started with granting me a good income, but lately their demand decreased which caused for a negative value. Google currently takes from me 73.30 euros while amazon takes 57.56 euros from me. I believe that Domino's Pizza and Walt Disney kept bringing me a great and steady income because both of those has a big demand, one for food and another for entertainment. Farther more, Disney has a lot of demand because for the past few months some movies and series got out for view and increased the number of watchers and buyers. Anyhow, Google and Amazon maybe lost some of their demand because of the elections in America, which could have changed all of the economic system. Another reason could be the "war" between Microsoft, Google and Amazon, which means that costumers are changing companies and trying new ones to see which one is the best. In conclusion, costumers are leaving their regular companies, like Amazon and Google, so they can have best and easiest technology accessible.
After those months of dealing with the stock market, I will change some of the decisions that I made in September but will still keep some. For example, I will keep my junk food and entertainment stocks but will get rid of the clothes companies, like Nike and Gap. I would have also made more research about future successful stocks and ask people about which stocks they think that will turn out well. I would invest in the banking sector in America because the newly elected president owes them billions of dollars, so I assume they have a leverage on him to promote pro- banking legislation. And in so I would invest in one of the more established banks, Citibank for example. In summary of this whole project, I've learnt that stocks can go from best to worst in a short amount of time, and if you do not know the signals of when to sell/ trade the struggling stocks, then you could go down with them. I've also learnt that research and current events, like elections or a crisis like an earthquake, has a lot of value in the fact of if the stocks will have more demand or less.