Stock Market Advice
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- Category: Stock Market
The stock market is a creature in and of itself. At times it makes sense and at other times, no one can explain why it acts the way it does. What is clear is that, over the long run, the stock market will climb and climb faster than almost any other traditional investment. With that said, there are also moments (that sometimes last year) when the value of the stock market gets out of whack with the underlying companies and with the economy. The stock market is driven by supply and demand. The number of shares of stock dictates the supply and the number of shares that investors want to buy dictates the demand.
It's important to understand the for every share that is purchased, there is someone on the other end selling that share (or vice versa). The stock market is really just a big, automated superstore where everyone goes to buy and sell their stock. The main players in the stock market are the exchanges. Exchanges are where the sellers are matched with buyers to both facilitate trading and to help set the price of the shares. The primary exchanges are the Nasdaq, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), all of the ECNs (electronic communication networks) and a few other regional exchanges like the American Stock Exchange and the Pacific Stock Exchange. Years ago, all of the trading was done through the traditional exchanges (like the NYSE, American and Pacific Exchanges) but now almost all of the trading is done through the Nasdaq, which uses ECNs and thousands of other firms with access to the Nasdaq to facilitate trading.
Stocks have two types of valuations. One is a value created using some type of cash flow, sales or fundamental earnings analysis. The other value is dictated by how much an investor is willing to pay for a particular share of stock and by how much other investors are willing to sell a stock for (in other words, by supply and demand). Both of these values change over time as investors change the way they analyze stocks and as they become more or less confident in the future of stocks. Let me discuss both types of valuations.
