1. Multi Level Marketing 2. Diamond 3.Stock Exchange Blog 3. PS Store
Read More → Stock ExchangeSabtu, 15 Agustus 2009
Kamis, 30 April 2009
What a stock exchange does
The stock market is on the news every day. Even on days when there isn’t trading, like a weekend or a holiday, there are people on TV and in the newspaper that are talking about what they think individual stock are going to do and why you should or shouldn’t invest your money right now. We know that a stock market trades stocks. But why? And what good does it provide to the economy?
The stock market is seen by many to be the engine that drives the economy. Businesses and corporations and even governments use the stock market to create capital or wealth. They create this wealth by offering stock, or shares, which are like little pieces of ownership of the company or corporation, and then they trade them. The value of the stock depends on how well the company is doing. The company sells the stock to investors who buy the stock based on if they think the company is going to be making a lot of money or not. This brings in a huge amount of cash into the corporation. IPO’s or initial price offerings are when a company offers stock to the public for the first time ever. A big corporation can make hundreds of millions of dollars or even billions of dollars during their IPO. If the company continues to do well and make money, the stock price goes up, everyone that has shares makes money and more stock is sold to people who want to own a piece of that company.
The same method works if the company is doing badly. The stock loses value as the company does badly, and people then begin to sell the stock and the value of it goes down.
Every company, even the most successful ones, have their stocks go up and down on a monthly basis based on things like earning reports. There is no 100% safe stock, but there are stock that is referred to as “blue chip” stocks, or ones that are the most reliable.
But it isn’t just stock that is traded on a stock exchange like the NYSE. Bonds, securities and commodities are also traded, creating wealth in many different sectors as well as helping the flow of goods and services over the globe. The role of the NYSE and other stock exchanges around the world cannot be overstated in their importance to the world economy.
The History of Wall Street
When people in the media, or just people in the know, refer to the various stock markets in lower Manhattan in New York City, they usually just refer to Wall Street. The now famous financial district has become synonymous with large amounts of money, power and influence. But how did one street manage to evolve into such an important address?
Ironically, most major investment firms that helped to build Wall Street into the financial force that it is today aren’t even headquartered there anymore. Thanks to technology advancements, these companies are usually headquartered in other parts of Manhattan or in neighbouring New Jersey or Connecticut. One of the most influential companies in Wall Street history, J.P. Morgan moved from the address that they helped make famous in late 2001.
The name Wall Street was actually given to the street since it formed a boundary to the New Amsterdam settlement in the early 1600’s. To help ward off the British, a 12-foot wall was built around the street to keep out invaders in 1653. In 1792, the Buttonwood agreement started the New York Stock Exchange and its headquarters would be on Wall Street.
In 1889, a newspaper that would eventually become the Wall Street Journal began publication. The paper took its name from the fact that a growing financial district was sprouting around the stock exchange and many companies that would go on to be powerful forces in the United States economy were headquartered there.
One of the most well known symbols of Wall Street, the JP Morgan headquarters, was built in 1914. The building still stands today, but is now owned and run by Deutsche Bank.
Wall Street has seen its fair share of history over the years, with the 1920 bombing that killed around 40 people and injured 400 to the great crash of 1929 that saw some people kill themselves. Today, if you check the front façade of the JP Morgan building, you can still see pock marks of the 1920 terrorist attack.
The construction of the World Trade Centers were the only real major architectural change to the financial district in the last half of the 20th century, and their subsequent destruction has left a void in the hearts and minds of many that work and live near there.
The history of Wall Street is a collage of incredible highs and devastating lows. As the center for American and some would say world finance, you can bet that there will be plenty of memories made on the most famous street in the world.