Stock
A stock is basically a share of ownership in a corporation. When you buy 1 share of Microsoft you own a tiny fraction of the company (approximately 1/9,310,000,000) — so we really meant it when we said tiny. In other words, to own 1% of Microsoft, you would have to own about 93 million shares, or approximately $2.6 billion (as of 6/25/2008).
Recent articles about Stock
Recently, I was sent a copy of Wise Investing Made Simple: Larry Swedroe’s Tales to Enrich Your Future by the publicist. After I finished the first chapter, I simply couldn’t put it down until I finished the book. As my regular readers may know, I like good stories, and this book was packed [...]
You may have heard the expression “cut your losses early” before. This is probably the most profound wisdom for stock investors. The table below will illustrate the reason behind this insight.
The table shows that it is exponentially harder to recover from the decline in stock value. For example:
If a stock loses 10% of [...]
When discount brokerage firms like Charles Schwab, E*Trade, and TD Ameritrade emerged on the scene, they made stock trading more affordable. The trade commissions in the sub $20 range were a refreshing change from the exorbitant fees traditionally charged by full service brokers. If that was good, now it must be great with [...]
This week lesson with my wife was about different investment vehicles. I am not an investment guru, so our conversation was mainly around the ones we do use. However, I did some Google searches and included other investment vehicles I do not use for the sake of completeness (links are pointing to Wikipedia).
Photo from stock.xchnge
Various [...]
You may have heard the phrase “beat the market. ” In this case, the market usually refers to the S&P 500 index. There are other U.S. indices such as, DJIA, NASDAQ 100, NASDAQ Composite, Russell 2000, Wilshire 5000, and many other domestic and international ones. However, the S&P 500 is by far the most used [...]
I have been investing in the stock market for nearly 10 years and acquired quite a bit of experience and knowledge (mainly through making mistakes). I’ve never codified on to a piece of paper until today. Before I begin, I want to give credit where it is due. This post was inspired by CommodityWorld.com’s Common [...]
What is an expense ratio? It is a fee that mutual fund companies subtract from your investments each year for their services. Can that small fee have such a big impact? Yes, it’s possible for high expense ratio to eat up 50% of your gain — given enough time, high expense ratio [...]
First, I have little experience investing in IOUs like bills, notes, and bonds — except for the occasional dabble in bond funds. I came across Treasury bills for ordinary folks at Wise Bread last night and thought the article was well written — definitely worth a read if you are inexperience with fixed income investments. [...]
