Stock Market History - A History Of The Market And What You Can Learn From It

Many people today want to know what the stock market history is, and how the market came into being. Also, others look up the market history to determine the historical stock prices, in order to gain an idea of how the overall price has generally performed, and to attempt to predict the future.

First of all, numerous people today simply believe that Wall Street and the stock market are the same thing; in fact, that belief is generally very accurate. Wall Street is where the stock market first came into existence.

Stock Market History

Wall Street all began in 1653. Actually, it was first established by the Dutch, who originally set it up as a defense mechanism against any potential Native Americans. They had no idea that this fence would go on to become the capital of the whole world of finance and commerce.

The wall lasted a good while, until 1685. It was at this point at which the wall was torn down, and a new street came into existence. This street was dubbed Wall Street.

Eventually, the stock market began on Wall Street, and has grown to the point of facilitating the trading and exchange of billions of dollars daily. It wasn’t always this way, however.

In the early 1900s numerous investors earned fortunes through the stock market. However, that all came crashing down in 1929, with the famous market crash and the signaling of the Great Depression-the biggest crash in stock market history.

However, the market crash of 1929 wasn’t the only time the market would fall. In fact, this simply signaled the first of many downturns for the market in the coming years. The market did in fact recover form this crash, and went on a period of sporadic rising and falling until 1987, during which time the Dow Jones suffered the biggest one day downturn in stock market history.

The government, after this time, has tried to become more involved in preventing another such catastrophe. Every time the market crashes, the savings of thousands of investors are at a huge risk, and many have seen their life investments literally wiped out overnight. However, another such loss can never be completely eliminated.

By and large, however, the market has on the whole averaged growing by 12% for a significant time period, and overall has been a tremendous success for many investors. While it will take some research and due diligence, if you do become financially educated, you can and will make a fortune with your investments. Hopefully, this bit of stock market history will serve as an entertaining and enlightening guide to the past, and you can learn from it and capitalize for the future.

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What will happen to our 401 k if the stock market totally crashes 

Keep in mind, that over the history of the stock market, the stock market has never lost money in a 20 year period. The stock market will always go up and down

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As you can see, 2008 was the fourth most volatile year in stock market history. The table shows that the worst times were during the great depression (1929-1932), after the internet tech bubble.

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Posted under Stock Market Investment Advice

Do you have your own profitable forex trading systems? Are you intending to buy one or build one your own?

Forex trading systems are your set of rules to help you profit from the forex market over and over again.

It should help you to decide from trade entry to trade exit. It should also serve to protect your capital from any adverse market conditions and to maximize your profits during any profitable trend.

With a good forex trading system, you should never need to think twice about entering or exiting a trade. You know that it will yield you great profits over the long term.

However, with so many forex trading systems, picking one that is profitable consistently is not easy.

Today, we are going to cover the 7 secrets to picking a profitable trading system that will make you profits consistently day in day out.

Do Not Pick a Day Trading System

The idea of trading many times in a day to increase your profits seems wonderful. You must be thinking the more you trade, the more money you can win! This concept has leave many day traders looking for the perfect forex day trading systems.

Yet most will failed and lose their money.

There is a reason why day trading can hardly work for many. 

When you are day trading, you are exploiting the short term movement in a single day. The problem is this intra-day movement is very volatile and random.

It can spike huge in either way and the average trader will find it hard to keep making the correct decisions.

You would not see many rich day traders in the market. Have you ever see Warren Buffet encouraging day trading? No! He has in fact persuade traders not to trade unless necessary.

Simple Trading System Works Best

Do you know that simple trading systems can work in any kind of market environment? It does not waiver in hard market conditions as it does not try to curve fit.

A complicated system will try to use many indicators to reach a trading decision. Such systems often fail when the market changes its personality.

In short, complexity setup does not add to your profits. The key reason why simple system has always outperformed a complicated system is the trader himself.

When the trader understand the simple system, he has more confident to execute a trade. He knows the principle behind it and will continue using this system even during losing periods.

By using the same system over a large sample of trades, you will emerge profitable with a balanced number of winning and losing trades. Thus the simple forex system often results in an overall net profit.

Understand How Your Trading System Works

Never buy a black box system when you do not know how it works.
There is a lot of trading software that gives you a signal upon entering some parameters. Let me caution like this can be a bad choice to take.

Everything goes fine when you win but the problem crops up when you lose. You have no idea why it loses money because you do not know how it works.

All the question marks start appearing and you will soon lose confidence. A trading system without you understanding and confidence is gone.

You will not be able to trade it for a large sample of trades to make any profits.

That is why you should stick to a forex trading system that you are able to understand and manually trade with.

The Worst Drawdown Ever

Every forex trading system will have its drawdown. It is inevitable but you want to focus on the worst drawdown of this system.

You need to ask yourself whether you can stand this drawdown %. You also need to tolerate the likely number of losing days before it can turn profitable again.
This is to help you to prepare for this similar scenario to occur. Once you understand this, you will be well-equipped to go through it unscathed.

You will not suddenly abandon your trading system and missed the winning period that is about to come.

Beware of Curve Fitting Your System

Never use a system that needs different parameters to trade different currencies.

This might be a curve fitting system and the parameters only work during back testing. Even if your system is profitable during live trading. It seldom last long because it is not based on how the market actually works.
Currencies move up and down because the human traders do so.

And human traders will never change their human behavior. So build your system on this principle and not on any back test results.

Track Record Tells You Everything

A forex trading system ideally should have gone through live trading and prove profitable. It should not only be profitable during back test periods. It must be working now.

Be wary of hypothetical track records which of course are done in hindsight, knowing the closing prices.

Anyone can make a profit this way!

Money Back Guarantee

The system creator will give you a money back guarantee if they are confident in their system. No one will ask for their money back if it is a profitable system.

So this is supposedly a given condition when you are buying a forex trading system.

I have come to the end of these 7 secrets.

Following them and you will likely end with a forex trading system that is better than 95% of the system in the market.

Finding your Profitable Trading System
Are you still confused about choosing your own trading system?

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Posted under Stock Market Investment Advice

This article discusses why you do not necessarily have to trade the markets full-time in order to make a good living from forex trading.

Many people naturally assume that in order to make decent money from forex trading you need to sit at your computer screen all day actively entering and closing positions. However I’m living proof that profitable forex trading does not have to be a full-time occupation.

While I do work from home and do spend most of my day at my computer, most of this time is spent working on my various websites. I generally have a few charts of the major pairs open in separate windows and just glance at them occasionally to see if my entry criteria are met, or to see how a position is doing.

The reason I am so casual about my forex trading is that I generally use 4 hour charts most of the time so positions often unwind very slowly and take care of themselves. When I enter a position I will place a stop loss to prevent a position going against me, and if a position goes in my favour I will just keep on eye on it every so often or place a limit order to sell all or part of a position at a certain price. However even this method of trading does involve being at a computer during the day in order to keep on eye on positions, and therefore isn’t suitable for everyone.

There are alternatives, however. For instance, if you work during the day and can’t monitor positions during this time, then you could choose to only trade during certain hours of the day. I personally dabble in a bit of short-term trading during the week using the 5 minute charts, and while I don’t really recommend scalping, I’ve found this method of trading to be highly profitable during the hour between 8.00 and 9.00 UK time, when the London market opens.

This is because the opening hour usually sets the trend for the day and you often get strong opening moves one way or the other during this hour, so most of the time it’s just a case of trading in the direction of this initial trend. For instance if you get an instance of the price coming out of an overbought or oversold position during this hour, you usually get a strong rebound and a nice continuation of the new trend.

So this is a good example of how you could trade the forex on a part-time basis. You don’t need to trade all day. Just one busy hour or couple of hours during the day could give you more than enough points profit.

Similarly another method of part-time trading is to only trade the daily charts. You could base your trading method on the end of day charts, and place your entry prices, stop losses and limit prices the day before.

So overall it is definitely possible to successfully trade the forex markets on a part-time basis. You could only trade during certain times of the day, or you could take a longer-term approach which doesn’t involve you being at your computer all the time.

James Woolley runs a forex blog which contains all the latest forex tips and strategies plus reviews of some of the leading forex brokers.

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Posted under Stock Market Investment Advice

Can the Investools crew teach you how to become a successful trader or is it just an Investools scam?

Investools is a business which gives stock market training and trend projecting tools designed for a range of inexperienced to moderate traders. Investools is a publicly traded company and therefore has to reveal its earnings, this is a highly beneficial thing due to shareholder responsibility and the wide availability of financial records.

Investools recruit people for a no charge Get Motivated 2 day seminar, which could end up costing up to two grand if you intend to stay for the full two days. I went to the introductory Investools seminar and I want to offer some helpful hints.

If you don’t plan on returning for the second day make sure to return all your materials and let them know you won’t be coming back or else Investools will charge you for the full course. Next, be ready for aggressive advertising and hard sell techniques trying to get you to buy higher costing Investools seminars and programs.

The continued Investools scam bundles are offered in three packages Associates course for 5,000 dollars, Masters course for 11,000 dollars or the PHD course for roughly 23,000 bucks. This is no typo here, Investools customers are encouraged to dish out twenty three thousand dollars to get the most optimal Investools training.

The negative Investools Reviews, that I’ve gathered from my conversations with their traders, agree that Investools is overly focused on selling you additional materials, rather than focusing on developing and monitoring your growth as a trader.

Numerous comments I’ve heard relating to the actual Investools software are normally favorable. However customers and experts point out that although Investools teaches helpful data and have a helpful toolbox, the info they offer is not worth their prices. If truth be told, you can find related training and similar projections using free websites on the net.

Another drawback to the Investools scam is that after you finish their training you feel compelled to enter the market immediately, even though you may not be fully prepared, since you’re already down a ton of money from the training. By and large, the fee of Investools will overwhelm your profits for a good length of time even if you are consistently profiting, which is unlikely. Find out what over a dozen Investools customers have to say in their full Investools Reviews

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Posted under Stock Market Investment Advice

Expected performance of a stock depends on quality of the company, market evaluation of its stock, and macroeconomic environment. Also general market conditions and news are significant contributing factors in stocks performance. That is why a good investing decision should be based on a multi-dimensional consideration of many criteria. One of the optimal solutions is to use fundamental, technical, and timing analyses together.

Investing in the stock market is one of the most profitable and the riskiest kind of investments. Nowadays, in most cases, investment allocation is a result of flowing cash to the assets where the current return and risk are satisfied a certain investor expectation. There are some differences between such participants on the stock market as investors and traders. However, a classical investor and trader are both aim at gaining money. History evidences the different cases, when an investor started with a small amount of money and eventually became very rich, or on the contrary, when a millionaire lost all investments on the stock market and became poor. What is the most important quality that separates the winners from the losers on the stock market? The answer is simple - it is knowledge in investing, either that is based on collected wisdom by other investors or gained through making own mistakes. Anyway, the following basic principles could be useful to remember:

1. Never invest all your money in the stock market, especially, if you are a beginner. Common recommended portion of invested money in stocks is from 25% to 50% of your total budget.
2. Never invest all money in one stock - always diversify among several stocks in different sectors.
3. Always watch closely general market conditions, especially, when bear market is about to start. Be prepared by selling most holdings in advance.
4. Never rush with investment solution. Carefully watch financial quarterly reports, news, and macroeconomics trends before making any decision.
5. Never let your emotions prevail over a rational disciplined approach.
6. To improve return/risk ratio, use reliable software tools that embody the investors’ concentrated wisdom.
7. All stocks are volatile without exception. There will be always a certain probability that something suddenly will go wrong with any stock. Even the best stocks can depreciate.

USA recent researches show that an average investor has around $ 250,000 investment assets and more than half investors uses brokerage advices. Investing is popular for both genders almost equally. For the last decades, the expectation of most investors decreased from about 30 % to about 10% of annual return on investment. Most investors prefer a long-term type of investments with less than five transactions per year. Not everyone is able to succeed in investing. Most losses in investing happen because of lack of knowledge, over-confidence, impatience, greed, fear, and different delusions. An experienced investor knows that there is a direct proportion between time spent to increase investing skills and return on investment.

Self-education can help to improve investment skills. Usually, after reading tens of books about investing, investors come to conclusion about importance of fundamental analysis and interpretation of technical analysis indicators. Also investors need to read quarterly financial reports, watch market conditions, try to predict macroeconomics trends, etc. How much time all these take? Fortunately, there is an optimized approach that allows investing time effectively to give a maximum return. As an example, to reach excellence in driving it is enough to read one book, get driving training, and regularly practice. Something similar is possible with investing skills, except that a few books will be required. The following books could be good for improving the investment competence:

• Lessons from the Greatest Stock Traders of All Time by John Boik (good introduction in investing)
• Stock Investing For Dummies by Paul Mladjenovic (very useful and important to read book)

The following books by William J. O’Neil:

• How to Make Money in Stocks
• 24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success
• The Successful Investor

These books are easy and enjoyable to read. Some experts opinion can be contradictory. For example, some authors offer using such method as "averaging down". This is a method to reduce the cost of purchases. "Averaging down" means to buy more stock of a given issue at a price less than the last purchase successively as the price declines. However, other authors insist that such method is bad. They suggest sell any stock if the market price drops below around 8 % - 10 % of the purchase price. The problem of this contradiction is that averaging down works well in case if decreasing price is a temporal correction but not a sign of declining business and long-term dropping demand for the stocks. How to distinguish correction from alarming signal? The answer is - to evaluate exactly a real value of company and its stocks, as well as, understand current market condition and know macroeconomic trends.

Nevertheless, all books about investing are useful to a certain extent. The next important step is training. It can be done without money, in a simulation mode. Then it will be naturally to use real money for learning lessons more effectively. A regular practicing is important. However, it is hard to acquire good investing skills fast. One of the reasons is that the market is not always the same. It can be bull or bear market with different corrections. Some market cycles can be very long. For example, a real bear market happens seldom, around once in 12-14 years. Even so, it would be useful to experience a bear market, at least once.

The first step in investment analysis has to be fundamental analysis. The fundamental analysis allows predicting a long-term stock performance. It depends on many factors: company profitability and its growth, liquidity, market stock value relatively to earning, book value, and sales, etc. Stock price also depends on news, analysts opinions, and different ratings. Such factors can be many and it is clear that each of them differently exerts influence on stock performance. For example, statistical research of hundreds of companies for period of several years reveals that the more number of bad parameters belong to the company and its stock, the riskier investing in it. In general, any company and its stock can be considered as a system and the best model of such system quality is a combination of all influential factors with different weights.

Using technical analysis additionally to fundamental analysis can increase chances of successful investing. One of the best software tools to perform technical analysis is MetaStock www.metastock.com. However, since there are hundreds of technical indicators with different interpretations for each of them, it is not easy to complete a full-scale technical analysis. Some investors use only some of indicators that are good from their point of view. In general, each indicator has its own ability to predict stock price. Ideally, it would be good to allow computer software to define the current ability of indicators in prediction of stocks prices and assign each of indicators corresponding weight. Then logically, to maximize accuracy of prediction it would be good to combine all signals from all indicators. Besides fundamental and technical analyses, it should be taken into consideration that price of any stock goes up and down depending on other many factors, including general market and sectors conditions. That means there should be an optimal time for buying stock (as well as for selling). Therefore, timing analysis is also important.

To summarize, it is better to use the software that takes into consideration fundamental, technical, and timing analyses together. One of the computer programs on the market with such capabilities is InvAn by Addaptron Software www.addaptron.com. InvAn combines the results of fundamental, technical, and timing analyses into a single composite rating using a special algorithm. InvAn defines prediction ability of each technical indicator and then combines signals from all of them into technical analysis rating using Artificial Neural Networks. The main output is the composite rating, i.e., the list of stocks from the worst to the best. Due to a fast and automatic data processing, InvAn enables watching hundreds of stocks. It also has other useful features, such as, calculating optimal cash reserve depending on the market condition and forecasting stock price on the basis of Fourier spectrum analysis. You can find other software tools; the best way to choose the right one is to try their demo versions and read software descriptions (what data used and how they are processed).

If you have never invested in stocks before, consider this. Nowadays of technical progress, buying and selling stocks become very simple. To use the Internet for stock investing, all you need to do is to open account with some Internet stock investing brokerage. The recommended minimum amount to invest in one stock can be $ 2000..3000. Using smaller amount may be unreasonable because of the commission to buy and then sell.

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Posted under Stock Market Investment Advice

If you want to know how to become a day trader, here are 10 top tips. 

There are many of us who would like to know how to become a day trader. Nowadays, becoming a day trader is not as difficult as it once was. As long as you have access to a computer with internet, you are pretty much set. You’ll also need a brokerage account and need to pick up some of the terms which are used in the industry.

It may help to get a day trader training program or trading software package which is easy for newbies and more seasoned traders to use.

So here are 10 top tips on how to become a day trader:

Tip 1 - Learn the skills.
There are numerous companies both online and offline which provide training sessions which sould help you to master the skills.

Tip 2 - Get a training program which suits you.
When selecting any day trading training program, try and select one that will grow with you as you transform from a learner to an active trader.

Tip 3 - Learn from the best.
If you are lucky enough to know of someone who is a successful day trader, see if that person will let you watch them for a day as they trade.

Tip 4 - Don’t use the rent money.
Only trade with money you can afford to lose. I know this does not sound positive but lets be real for a second. As with aspects of life, some days are great and some days are not. If the worst happens and you lose all your money, it’s just a lesson learnt.

Tip 5 - Start with no money.
You should always start your trading career by ‘paper trading’. This is a way practice trading following the market using your skills but not using any money. This will let you build confidence and learn before commiting cash to the pot.

Tip 6 - Record your actions.
Keep a record of what works and what failed. From this, you can design your own game plan.

Tip 7 - Look for a discount broker.
Some brokers will offer incentives for you to trade with them. This could be in the form of a reduction of their fees and sometimes a credit into your brokerage account.

Tip 8 - Hold your stock longer.
At the start of your career, it may be beneficial to hold onto your stock for up to a week or so before selling. This will give you a chance to watch your stock without the pressure of the fast sale as there is in normal day trading.

Tip 9 - Understand the reasons.
Don’t just follow all the other traders and buy just because they are buying, take the time to understand why it is the right moment to buy and sell. There will be a time when you will have no one to follow so you will need to understand the reasons behind your trades.

Tip 10 - Stay strong.
Some days, you will feel like it has all been a waste of time and nothing has gone right. Don’t worry. Tomorrow is another day to start a fresh.

If you are starting out and looking to purchase a training program, system or software, the choice can be overwhelming. So what do you buy?

On our website, we report on different trading software, trading systems and programs so you can compare them . When you get the chance, come over and have a look.

And thanks for reading 10 tips on how to become a day trader.

There is a lot of trading software, trading courses and trading sytems, all claiming to be the best. On our website, we have independent reports of the better ones. See if we can help you over at Stock Market Software.

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Posted under Stock Market Investment Advice

An Article about the bear in the Stock Market in 2008.

Most major international stock indices are dropping fast. In fact, stock markets in Asia, the United Kingdom, and Europe have all now seen the fury of the bear. A bear market is generally defined as a drop of twenty percent from the market’s previous high. Indeed, it was only last October, when all of these global stock markets were about twenty percent higher than the levels of today.

Conditions in the United States equities market are not any different from global bourses. Since last October, both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the NASDAQ have fallen by about twenty percent and entered bear market territory. It is common that, in most bear markets, the mood of the general public is grim. This time is not any exception. More than 80% of Americans currently think that the country is heading in the wrong direction. Indeed, half of the country even thinks that America’s best days are now behind it.

The public’s mood is not about to improve as second quarter 2008 IRA, 401k, 403b, and brokerage statements arrive in the mail, a quarter that includes a 10.2% drop in value in the last month alone. In fact, it was the market’s biggest June loss since the Great Depression. The U.S. stock market has now lost $2.1 trillion in value this year with a $1.4 trillion loss in the month of June alone. However, in equity investing an investor should not focus on what has happened, but instead consider what will happen next.

If only we had a crystal ball, the market’s short term future would be so much easier to see. The many questions that overhang this equity market would suddenly become answered and the market would move accordingly . Unfortunately, the truth is that we would really need the help of Nostradamous to accurately answer all of the questions necessary to predict the stock market’s direction in the short term.

Indeed, the questions that will determine the markets future direction do seem endless; How long will the United States recession last? Will there be a global slowdown next? Is $150 the top for a price of a barrel of oil or will it go even higher? Is this just the beginning of an inflationary spiral that will send gold and silver to all time highs? When will the real estate market stabilize? How much longer will the major banks continue to pay the price of the sub- prime mortgage collapse? Will there be a global war with Iran in the next six months? Will the U.S. dollar continue to fall against the rest of the world’s currencies? Who will win the U.S. Presidential election and will it even matter to the economy and consumer confidence?

So many questions that are impossible to answer. That is why it is futile to try. In fact, it is sure financial folly to attempt to time the equity market and therefore it is impossible to accurately predict this bear market’s end in advance. Remember, an investor is in equities for the long term (at least five years). The true investor understands that dramatic fluctuations are common and a part of the economic cycle. A real investor looks at the market of 2008 as a unique long-term buying opportunity for an investment in high quality common stock.

So, here are three facts from history to help investors overcome shock as we open and review the sad results from our 2008 second quarter investment statements. (1). The Dow has been declining for 262 calendar days, which is shorter than the median bear market of 363 days. The market’s decline so far also is not as severe as the 26.9% average for a typical bear market. Therefore, the twenty percent market decline in the face of all the problems in the banking sector and the economy has so far actually been shallow compared to the average bear market of the past.

(2) The stock market will improve when the economy improves. Many financial pundits think that the economy entered into recession in February 2008. How long this recession will last is anyone’s guess. However, history does tell us that the average recession since 1945 in the United States has been an event that has lasted about ten months. If this recession is shallow, it may already be near an end.

(3) The biggest gains in the stock market occur on a recession rebound. Everyone talks with horror about the great depression from August 1929 to March 1933. In fact, the Dow plunged 84.2% during that period of time. However, just one year later, the market had recovered most of that huge loss by achieving an 81% gain. A similar story of recession with subsequent sharp market recoveries can be seen throughout American history.

It is obvious that the bear rules the equities market in 2008. However, the bull will eventually return to Wall Street. History tells us that the return of the bull after a recession brings the biggest rewards to those investors that have withstood the fury of the bear. Certainly, it is market conditions like these that highlight the difference between being a long term equity investor and a short term market timing trader. The truth is that the latter needs a crystal ball while the former needs a level head and time.

James William Smith has worked in senior management positions for some of the largest financial services firms in the United States for the last twenty five years. He has also provided business consulting support for insurance organizations and start up businesses. Mr. Smith has a Bachelor of Science Degree from Boston College. He enjoys writing articles on political, national, and world events. Visit his website at http://www.eworldvu.com

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Posted under Stock Market Investment Advice

Stock market trading, If we were to define what a stock actually is, its fair to say that it is a share in the ownership of a company. The more shares you own, the greater the stake is in the company. The terms equity, stock or shares all mean the same thing. You have a claim on the company’s assets and earnings.

Before you start making big plans for this company you own shares with, it’s important to remember that you are one of many other owners. Some will have lots of shares, others only a few. Just like your peers, you have a say. However, the peers with more shares happen to have a bigger say. Those are the perks of ownership of voting rights to the stock.

Not so long ago (before the internet), shareholders were rewarded with a stock certificate. This acted as proof of ownership. When you wanted to sell your shares, you literally took the physical shares to your brokerage who would arrange the sale for you. Fortunately today, we don’t have to worry about that kind of delay. The brokerage firm holds these documents electronically (called holding shares). Now when you want to sell, you just pick up the phone or click a mouse and your brokerage firm is no longer "holding shares".

As a shareholder, there are a couple of things that you cannot do. While you may be a shareholder of Dell, don’t expect to be able to order a new computer free of charge. Further, don’t plan a trip to Round Rock, Texas and expect to tell Michael Dell how to run his company on a day to day basis.

As a shareholder, there are a couple of things you can do. You can vote on who should sit on the board of directors, whether the company should allow more shares to become available on the public market and any other items that the CEO wishes to have the ownership of the company approve of before he/she makes his/her next move.

As shareholders, in theory, we have the power to remove a board of directors if they don’t return value for us. Sadly, it doesn’t always work out this way, as there are several shareholders who own a large percentage of shares, and will often dictate whether the board stays or goes.

Besides, who wants all that work anyway? If management is making the company and shareholders money, what do we care?

If the company is successful, and has made some money, it has 3 choices:
a) pay off the company debt
b) use the cash to grow the business
c) pay the shareholders via a dividend payment

Its important to remember that as a shareholder, you have a claim on the assets and earnings. So if the company makes money, you make money (through the increase in the price of shares, or through a dividend cheque). However, if the company goes bankrupt, you get to claim the assets, which is usually nothing since the creditors get paid first, and you get paid whatever is left. Makes sense to hold on a company that knows how to make money.

Another little legal item to share with you… as the owner of a stock, you have limited liability. In English, this means that you are not personally liable if the company you’re a shareholder of, can’t pay its debts. Whew. If you were an owner in a partnership, that would be a different story.

Forex trading training, are you looking for more information on trading stocks online? 1source4stocks also has great information on penny stocks and mutual fund store.

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Stock market allows various companies to publicly trade their shares to raise capital. This article briefs on the history of stock markets.

A stock market is a place where the stocks and securities of various companies are traded. Stock market is also known as stock exchange market. Buying and selling of financial instruments such as securities and stocks in a stock market is known as stock trading. A major component of a stock market is the stock exchange.

Stock Market History: When did the Stock Market Begin

Historical evidences reveal that the 11th century Muslim and Jewish Merchants in Cairo had a trade association and their own methods of credit and payment. This is believed to be the beginning of stock market. In the 12th century, courratiers de change of France managed and regulated the debts of agricultural communities on behalf of the banks. Since these men traded with debts, they were also known as "brokers". Venetian bankers traded in government securities in the 13th century. In the 14th century, the Dutch started joint stock companies which encouraged the shareholders to invest in business ventures. In 1602, Dutch East India company established Amsterdam Stock Exchange and they were the first company to issue stocks and bonds. The Dutch pioneered in "option trading", "short-selling", "debt-equity swaps" and in other speculative financial instruments.

London Stock Exchange: This is one of the oldest stock exchanges in the world and was established in 1698. The founder of London Stock Exchange was John Castaing. Today, London Stock Exchange lists 3,500 companies, representing 84 countries.

New York Exchange: The New York Exchange is the oldest and the most well-known of all American stock markets. This was established in 1792. NYSE has a total capitalization of nearly $20 trillion and lists 2,800 companies.

American Stock Exchange: The American Stock Exchange is also known as Amex. This stock exchange was established in 1849 during the California Gold Rush and the Curb Exchange. The American Stock Exchange was associated with the mining industry and played a major rule during the 19th century. In 1921, American Stock Exchange enlisted companies, which did not meet the standards of the New York Stock Exchange. In 1998, Amex was purchased by NASDAQ, but regained its independence in 2003.

Bombay Stock Exchange: One of the oldest stock exchange markets in Asia is Bombay Stock Exchange and it was established in 1875. Today, around 2,000,000 shares of stock are traded daily.

NASDAQ: National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation or NASDAQ was established in 1971. This was the first stock exchange to introduce the concept of electronics in stock trading. It is one of the most efficient stock exchanges in the world and it surpassed the average trading volume of the NYSE in October 2004.

In the initial stages of stock market, the stocks were bought and sold by individual investors who were wealthy businessmen or aristocrats. Over a period, stock market has revolutionized and today, most of the buyers and sellers are mainly large institutions such as insurance companies, companies that deal with mutual funds, exchange traded funds, group investors and banks. Today, the economy of a country is measured by the strength of its stock market.

The Stock Market Avoids another Breakdown

Friday’s stock failed to capitalize on the move Thursday and build on the gains produced by a short covering rally. This market has proven that staying on the sidelines has been a very.

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He has followed politics, history and economic history for many years, and has also written about it elsewhere online. He predicted this depression long before it happened, timed the co.

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According to the latest World Wealth Report from Merrill Lynch, there are now 10.1 million people worth more than $1m. By David Teather

The number of dollar millionaires around the world grew by 6% last year, driven by explosive growth in the emerging economies of India, China and Brazil.

According to the latest World Wealth Report from Merrill Lynch, there are now 10.1 million people worth more than $1m (?507,000), excluding the value of their homes. The growing number of millionaires during 2007 has managed to defy the credit crunch, a property crash and a slowing world economy.

The combined wealth of the millionaires, defined by Merrill Lynch as high net worth individuals (HNWIs), grew by 9.4% to $40.7 trillion, demonstrating once again, the truism that the wealthy are getting wealthier all the time.

The number of super-rich, defined as people with more than $30m, increased by 8.8% to 103,320.

"This year’s report found that the number of high net worth individuals and the amount of wealth they control, continued to increase in 2007," said Nick Tucker, executive director at Merrill Lynch. "We expect the environment to remain challenging over the next 6-12 months but long term the trends remain intact."

In Britain, there are 494,500 dollar millionaires, the number advancing by 2.1% last year, far slower than the European average of 3.7% but still faster than France and Germany.

The UK remains home to around 5% of the global dollar millionaires, ranking it fourth in the world, although that could change if threats to quit Britain made by "non-doms" angered by changes to the tax laws are carried out. Tucker said much of the wealth created in Britain is now entrepreneurial, compared with the picture of 10-15 years ago, when it was largely inherited wealth.

But he warned that the number of wealthy individuals in Britain could slip into reverse during 2008, if the current gloomy economic conditions persist. The growth in new millionaires during 2007 had slowed significantly from 8.1% in 2006. According to Merrill Lynch forecasts, there will be more millionaires in China than there are in Britain by the end of next year.

Ireland last year was one of the few countries to witness a decline in dollar millionaires, by 4% to 20,000, reflecting a slide in the Dublin stock market, inflationary pressures and a downturn in the property market. "I’m not predicting that will happen in the UK yet, but it is quite possible," Tucker said. "If the property market and the stock market conspired against it then the UK could possibly see the same thing happen."

He said that if conditions in the second half mirrored the first then the United States, which has suffered a collapse in its property market, could also see a decline in the number of millionaires this year. The number of millionaires in North America expanded by 4.2% last year, down from 9.2% in 2006.

The growth during 2007 was driven by the emerging markets. The number of dollar millionaires created by India’s red hot economy grew by 22.7%; China followed with growth of 20.3% and Brazil came next with a 19.1% expansion in the high net worth population. Tucker said there had been a divergence between mature and emerging markets in the second half of the year. "Mature economies have had significantly slower growth compared to other regions and compared to last year," he said.

The acceleration in emerging markets was supported by soaring local stock markets; total market capitalization of the Bombay exchange expanded by 118% during 2007, China’s stock market grew by 291% and the Bovespa in Sao Paulo expanded by 93%, as foreign investors flooded into Brazil. In the UK by comparison, the market capitalization of the London stock market contracted by 1.5% during 2007.

The number of dollar millionaires in eastern Europe grew at 14.3%, compared with growth of 3% in western Europe.

The report attempts to break down the spending habits of the world’s wealthy. According to Merrill Lynch they spend 16% of their money on "luxury collectibles" including cars, boats and private jets, another 16% on art-underpinning the booming global art market, 14% of their money on luxury travel and another 14% on jewelery, gems and watches. They spend 5% on sporting investments, buying up teams and race horses.

The bad news for the world’s millionaires, is that their dollars are not stretching as far they used to. According to Merrill Lynch they face personal inflation rates of 6.2%.

Although the global economy is looking fragile in the short term, the report compiled in association with investment group Capgemini, is forecasting continued growth in the more medium term. The report suggest that global wealth of high net worth individuals will grow to $59.1tn by 2012, advancing at a rate of 7.7% a year.

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