Are you bored with the 9 to 5 job? Want something in your life to change instantly? Want your dreams come true. Your dream of relaxing in a big house and there is a flow of money in the form of dividend cheque. Imagine yourself an owner of a business and watch your company grow.

All of this and much more is now possible by owning STOCKS.

In today’s fast moving world , stocks which was always the ball game of the rich and wealthy people , with the trading technologies expanding itself , the market has opened its doors to each and all who wish to own stock.

If you wish to multiply your money and want build wealth then owning stock is the thing for you .But before you take the plunge in this deep sea of stock market ,its vital and important for you understand about the stocks and how they trade. Most people have heard about stocks from friends or often have overheard a conversation, like “oh Mr. Shah, did wonders on the stock market and now is starting a new firm “or “Mr. Patel lost ...XYZ amount in the stock market. Though being a very popular topic of discussion in most of the places, there is a lot of misconception about it. Everything in life is not free so even this money building financial tool also has risk factors in it.

The only way is to educate our self and protect our self by investing the money at the right place.

CHAPTER 2

WHAT ARE STOCKS AND SHARES?

To run a company or a business, you need funds. This capital can either be generated from within or one has to be borrowed from outside. Borrowing the money can always be a very expensive option , what companies do is give a unit of ownership interest in a corporation or a financial asset, which is called a SHARE and the person possessing the share is called SHARE HOLDER.

It does not mean that if a person is SHAREHOLDER he/she gets to make decisions in the day to day operations of the business. They get the equal share in the profits of the business in the form of dividends.

STOCK signifies the ownership on the company’s assets and earnings. So in totality SHARES and STOCKS in today’s financial market mean the same thing.

Normally a layman would buy certain shares and keep it just to earn dividends, where as few investors who want to deal in the stock trading would buy and sell them. The prices of the shares keep on rising and falling, so you should d be prepared to lose your investment anytime.

There are investors in the stock market who have lost their fortune in it and few have billions.

So what is most important before entering into the big well of stock market is to educate yourself properly and learn in which shares to invest which can give you big returns.

CHAPTER 3

TYPES OF STOCKS

There are generally 2 types of Stocks.

COMMON STOCK: A common stock also known as Voting share or an Ordinary share gives the right to the shareholder to vote on the corporate matters .policy and to elect the Board Members. Mostly the companies issue Common stocks. The dividend paid on these stocks is not fixed and would vary. The return on the Common stocks is much higher than in any other investment, but this return are with cost as common stock involves maximum risks. If the company goes bankrupt or chooses to close down Common stock holders are only paid after the preferred shareholders, bondholders and the creditors are paid. The biggest benefit of a common stock is its can be converted in cash, that is can be liquidities very fast.

PREFERRED STOCK : A Preferred stock is also known as known as Preference share or Preferred share, is a higher ranking stock then the Common stock, and its terms are negotiated between the company and the investor. Preferred stock generally does not carry a voting rights but it does carry priority over the Common stock in payment of dividend and upon liquidation. A Preferred stock holder has option to convert his stock to common stock after predetermined dates, which are called CONVERTIBLE PREFERRED SHARES.

CHAPTER 4

WHAT MOVES STOCK PRICES.

Stock prices are directly related to the company’s earnings, but what exactly makes this prices move? There are no hard and fast rules to this. The news report of a specific company would make the investors have more stocks of it or the negative news can make the investors move out of those companies’ holdings by selling them.

The other reason for the market to sway is countries attempt to correct the inflation. Generally changes the stock prices are affected if the If the country usually higher or lowers the interest rates

According to analyst, amateur investors also can be a reason to move the stock market up and down. Amateur investors out of inexperience normally make decisions on press releases or rumors

The day traders are also considered the major contributor for the ups and downs of the stocks, as they generally deal in huge numbers of stock which affect the stock.

If the company’s are able to show that they have met or exceeded their profit margin , the stocks of the company will automatically go up, but if vice a versa .. If company falls short in meeting the profit margin the immediate reaction of the investors would be to sell the stock holdings of that company.
So to conclude, there is no exact reason for the stock prices to move up or down…

Success in investing comes not with how and a dash of luck, but with analytical and cool mind.

MARKET TREND: BEAR OR BULL!!!!

Where these names do came from? Remember bears are sluggish and bulls are forceful. The bull flairs its thorns up when tries to attack its prey and the bear swipes downs, this is metaphorically depicted in the stock market. When the market has trend is upwards it’s said to be a Bull market and Bear market when the trend hits the downward graph.

BULL MARKET

A bull market trend is associated with increasing confidence of the investors, and anticipation of the future rise in the prices which would motivate the investors to buy the stocks. India’s Mumbai Stock Exchange Index, SUNSEX, was in the Bull Run for almost five years fro2003 to 2008.

BEAR MARKET

A Bear market is a steady drop in the stock market over a period of time. It is accompanied by pessimistic approach taken by the investors anticipating future down fall in the prices and hence starts selling the shares. No specific definition is available for the Bear market. But one generally accepted measure is a price decline of 15 % over a two month period of time.
 

CHAPTER 5

STOCKMARKETS

A stock market is a public for trading of the company stock at an agreed price. It is considered the fast way to get the money from an individual and give it to the company that needs it.

The concept of stock trading comes from way back in 1600 , when the East India Company was launched, it needed money from the people for their voyages, without any guarantee of return .hence they approached the investors to whom they gave shares in return of the cash.

The idea was that the risk would be shared and divided among the investors, no fixed returns would be paid to them but if company progressed and did well then the investors will be benefited. The idea worked and the investors made profits and by the end of 17th century many more were entering the ball game of trade.

In 1801 the LSE (LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE) was formulated, the systems were formulated and there was no looking back after that. LSE also runs AIM (Alternative investment Market) for the young companies as “starter market “

Today, along with Britain, LSE runs the biggest exchange with 1800 + companies, which is called the “main market “.

CHAPTER 6

STOCK EXCHANGES

WHY DO COMPANIES LIST ON THEM?

Stock Exchange is an organization or a corporation which helps in trading of stocks to investors and stock brokers. The main aim of listing the companies on stock exchange could be

Raising Capital for the businesses

Mobilizing Savings for further Investment and

Facilitating Companies Growth

NYSE

The biggest and the most prestigious stock exchange is the NYSE ( NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE) .NYSE came in existence way back in 1972 , when 24 New York stockbrokers and merchants got together

Sign the Buttonwood Agreement.

NYSE is first exchange of its kind and trades in the open outcry system. Each stock is traded by a specialist (who is the employee of NYSE) on a specific location on the trading floor. This specialist actually works as auctioneer between buyer and the seller in particular stock. This type of trading makes NYSE different from other exchanges which are totally dependent on electronic devices.

Today with changing times half of NYSE is also trading on electronic devices, and is come out of the Stone Age.

NASDAQ

The NASDAQ (NATIONAL ASSOCIATION of SECURITIES DEALERS AUTOMATED QUOTATION) is the second type of exchange and the largest electronic screen based trading market of United States of America. The exchange does not have central locations of specialist, neither do they floor trading. The entire trading is done through computers and telecommunications.

AMEX

The third largest exchange of America is the AMEX (AMERICAN STOCK EXCHANGE), which has been taken over by NASD (parent company of NASDAQ) in 1998.

OTHER EXCHANGES

There are many other stock exchanges around the world. Almost all countries have stock exchanges, with Americas stock exchange being undoubtedly be the largest.

List of other exchanges,

LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE

HONG KONG STOCK EXCHANGE

MUMBAI STOCK EXCHANGE

JOHANNESBURG SECURITIES EXCHANGE

And the list can go on…………

CHAPTER 7

WHAT ARE STOCK INDEXES

A stock market index is a method of measuring a section of stock market. Statistical indicator used in measurement and reporting changes in the market value of group of stocks. By measuring the performance of a one company based on the performance of other companies in the same type of business, which will help the investors to make best investment.

Major types of stock indices:-

There stock indices may classified in many ways.

GLOBAL market index includes all types of companies irrespective of where they are domiciled or traded. The 2 best examples of such index are MSCI WORLD and S&P GLOBAL 100.

NATION market index indicates the performance of a stock exchange of a nation and reflects the economy of the country. The examples of such index are the INDIAN SUNSEX and the JAPANESE NIKKEI 225

More specialized indices comprise of tracking the performance of the certain sector of the market, the example is MORGAN STANLEY BOITECH INDEX, it comprises of 36 American companies under biotechnology industry

Other indexes may track the companies from its size, or a certain type of management etc.

Weighting

The index can be also classified under the criteria as to how is it priced

PRICE WEIGHTED INDEX also known as equal dollar weighted index, each component stock contributes only to its price when determine the overall value. The size of the company or the volume in which its trading is not taken into considerations, hence evens a slight up or down in a single company highly influences the index

CAPITALIZED WEIGHTED INDEX also known as market value weighted index, whose components are weighted according to the total market value of their outstanding shares. The impact of the component’s price change is proportional to the issues overall market value.

CHAPTER 8

HOW DO I BUY AND SELL SHARES?

In ancient days buying and selling stocks/shares was the privilege of the rich , who with the help of certain share brokers use to buy and sell shares and among those few , the ones who had the inside information of the companies use to mint most money.

But the today’s internet age, the entire information is available to the common man, making him pretty much the part of this never ending market. As now most of the information is available on the internet, the stock brokers give their services with no frills attached , meaning you tell them which shares you want to buy or sell and they would do exactly the same , no advice given .

There are big stocks brokers like Barclays, Brennan etc who charge for the service their certain amount of commission for each deal, and also few brokers charge you yearly and quarterly fee just to keep your account open and do the dealing on your behalf.

Investors buy shares only for the purpose of income in forms of dividend, and then they should scrutinize properly and buy such shares that yield the most dividends.

Some investors are not interested in income but are more inclined towards capital growth, hence when the share price increases in anticipation that the company will yield more profits in future and which will affect the increase in the dividend payments… hence investors who are interested in capital growth, should invest in share that are expected to yield huge dividends in future.

CHAPTER 9

WHAT TYPE OF TRADER ARE YOU?

Each individual who is the stock market and is intending to make money has to identify himself from the various trader types he falls into and has to utilize that strategy.

The following are the types of traders,

POSITION TRADERS

Most investors fall in this category, as they buy stocks and hold them for months and years expecting to get more profits out of it. Institutional investors, mutual funds and investment banks are interested in such stocks which yield profits in long term. They concentrate more on the financial strength of the company and not in technicalities.

SWING TRADERS.

These are the traders who look for the fast movement in the market. Fast buying and selling , and in this short term of holding shares these types of traders make lots of wins and losses .They have the fast profit making mentality , they have high risk to reward ratio.

DAY TRADERS.

The stock market moves up and down every day and these types of traders make the most and capture the big portion of the move. He does not believe in keeping the stocks for more period of time like position and swing traders. He uses the stock market as source of income and not investment.

CHAPTER 10

INVESTING

PICKING STOCKS AND PLANNING TRADES

Stock picking in many ways is as good as choosing a spouse for you. There are lots of options available to you if you have money. Once you have decided that you want to invest in shares, the biggest question which comes to the mind is how to I buy stocks? How do I plan my trades?

It is up to you to decide in which category of investors you want to be and which strategy you would follow

GROWTH INVESTING STRATEGY

IF you are kind of optimistic investor, then this strategy is good for you. Here the investor foresees the growth of the company’s earnings and invests in it. This type of strategy is considered to the best for beginners in the stock market.

VALUE INVESTING STRATEGY

Benjamin Graham and David Dodd both professors at Columbia Business School, and professors too many big investors, are known as FATHER of this strategy.

In this strategy, the investors tend to buy stocks whose price has recently fallen and are available at cheap prices. But you have to be careful, value investing does not mean “JUNK “.Investors has to do their homework on the companies, and distinguish between the value company and the companies with declining prices. The company should have its fundamentals healthy to prove its worth.

DIVIDEND INVESTING STRATEGY

In this strategy the investors, buys stocks which pay dividends regularly to them on quarterly or yearly basis... The choice of companies in this strategy should be sound and healthy. This strategy may not be the sexist strategy, but in the long run, this time tested investment strategy would definitely yield returns.

CREATING A STOCK TRADING PLAN

If you want to build your wealth, keep your wealth and grow your wealth you should have a solid Stock Trading Plan .A stock trading plan is a fixed set of rules and actions which formulate your trading strategy. Every trade you do should be governed by your trading plan.

Your trade plan is your road map to tell yourself and affirm yourself and reach your goals.

You will have to consider certain criteria for your plan like,

the timing
Price of the stock
Current news about the stock
Liquidity of the stocks
How long to keep the stock i.e. to hold them
When to sell the stock
What to do when the prices of the stock does not move. Etc
You can think of other aspects as well, but the above is the major point s you have to consider.

Once you have made a plan, mock run of the plan in the stock market which will help you to know if your plan is effective or it needs amendments.

CHAPTER 11

THE MECHANICS – PLACING THE ORDER

STEP 1

OPENING A SHARE DEALING ACCOUNT

Once you have decided that you want to deal in shares, you have to open a standard share dealing account, which usually is free. The basic share dealing account offers certain services for free , that means “ No ADVICE “ they would simply buy or sell as per instructions given. They allow you to trade over the phone or thru internet

If you have opened an account with your broker then you have to send them money stating which and how many shares you want to buy. They would charge you certain brokerage fees for their services. Also few of them charge trading fee, if there is no activity for a certain period of time as inactivity fee.

If you are trading through a web site, then it would ask for a username in which you want to open an account and then a password, that’s it and you are on. Once you put the username and the password , it would ask you which companies shares you want to buy, how much you want to buy it would then give you a share quote , if acceptable to you .they get their research on the trading charts and

You can always think and come back again. If the quote is acceptable to you u confirms it and in return you will get an email confirmation by the broker and the deal is done.

Yes, it sounds a little tensed but you will get use to it over a period of time.

CHAPTER 12

RESEARCH STOCKS

STEP2

RESEARCH STOCKS

It is very important that you do proper research on the stock because the stock markets behave in weird ways and you should have proper knowledge to it. Never buy the stocks at random, as the market is not random and it works on lots of principles and attributes. If you want to succeed in the stock market you have to do proper research. Either you do the research on your own or you can hire someone to do it for you.

5 VITAL ISSUES

Fundamentals about the company. How is the company doing, is it a profit making company and a sound company.
What is the price history of the stocks of that company, i.e. how much are the investors paying for the stocks.
Price target is also a vital factor; you have to see how much the investors would pay for the stocks in future.
What catalysts would change the investor’s perception of the stock?
The most important of all compare the stocks with others in the same industry.
So, to sum up we can say that it’s important that as an investor you should have understanding of wider markets trends, knowledge of individual sectors. Also you should be able to analyze the financial records. You should not be able to have access to rumors and upcoming deals. Last but the most important is No emotional bias, generally this last point is overlooked.

Research before buying the shares; this can be done in many ways,

Go through the TV SHOWS and the newspapers, they have all the details of the shares which are doing well.
Take valuable tips from friends and family members who have the knowledge of the subject,
Never take any decision in HASTE and do not ignore any ADVICE.
Full service brokers also help to do the research, they hire the stock analysts and they in turn find out which would be the ideal stocks purchase for the client. They charge a specific fee for their services.
Interviews of the owners, CEO’S, directors etc also are helpful as they normally give the correct synopsis of their company.
In today’s world the internet technology has made the things easier for the investors to the research on their fingertips, they can research on trading charts and platforms. Some of these charts are available for free and some have costs attached to it.
It is of very important that you get all relevant and correct information on time so as to grow in the market and make maximum profits. You should be aware of that in the stock trading wrong and unreliable information is very dangerous.

CHAPTER 13

HOW TO READ QUOTES

HOW TO READ SHARE QUOTES IN NEWSPAPERS / INTERNET

Most of the people track their stock trades in the business sections of the newspaper or on the internet. The information provided on the stock table is the most current data available.

The stock table looks something like below

STEP1

Column 1 and 2 are the 52 WEEK High and Low – This is the highest and the lowest price paid for the single stock over the last 52 weeks i.e. one year.

STEP 2

Column 3 is the Companies name and the Type of stock – This column lists the name of the company. If there are no special letters or numbers following the name it is considered to be a common stock, but For example “pf” is return then it means the preferred stock, different symbols imply different types of stocks.

Step 3

Column 4 is the Ticker Symbol (SYM) – This is the unique alphabetic name which identifies the stock issued by the firm. If you are looking for the stocks quotes online you should search for the company by the Ticker Symbol.

STEP 4

Column 5 is the Dividend per Share – This indicated the annual dividend paid for each share, but if the space is blank then the company is not paying any dividends.

STEP5

Column 6 is the Dividend Yield –This is the percentage return on the dividend. Some companies do not pay dividends regularly; the Board of Directors decides how much to pay on quarterly basis calculated on annual dividend of the share divided by the price per share.

STEP 6

Column 7 is the Price/ Earnings Ratio –Mostly commonly known as P/E, this is calculated the current stocks prices by earnings per share from the last 4 quarters. The higher the P/E, the more investors are paying for the company’s potential.

STEP 7

Column 8 is the Trading Volume –The figures shows the total number of shares traded for the day, listed in hundreds. To get the actual number traded add”00” to the end of the numbers listed or multiply the number in the column by 100

STEP 8

Column 9 and 10 are the Days High and Low – This indicates the maximum and the minimum people have paid for the stock in a day

STEP 9

Column 11 is the Close – The close is the last trading price recorded at the end of the day, i.e. at market close.

STEP 10

Column is 12 is the Net Change – This is the dollar value change in the stock price then the last day’s closing price. If the + (positive) sign indicates rise and a - (negative) sign indicates a drop in the price.

CHAPTER 14

HOW TO BUY SHARES?

We have already discussed this before, but just to refresh it further, in ancient days dealing in trade market was only the privilege of the rich people, but now it is not so a common man is also a part of the trade market.

You can buy shares through any of the following ways

Stock broking through bank, custom stock brokers over the telephone or on line trading through internet.

If you have no idea how to go about investing and really need a lots of help then in that circumstances , you can go for ADVISORY SERVICE , where in the stock broker looks in to you individual account and advices you on buying and selling

But , if you wish to hand over the entire thing to someone else, then in that case you can go for DISCREATIONARY SERVICE, in this there is certain strategy between you and the broker which is agreed upon and the stock broker takes all the decisions of buying and selling on your behalf with your money. This type of service risk factor is more.

You can categorize the brokers in two major types,

Discount brokers - these brokers will collect a certain amount of annual fee form you and will only carry out what has been told to them, over the phone, in person or on the internet. They would give ZERO advice to you.

Full Service brokers- these brokers give you recommendations and advices on which stocks are good to buy, which will yield profits and which stocks are overvalued. They provided these services with a little higher fees and sometimes even commissions

CHAPTER 15

HOW TO PICK A BROKER

Now, the question arises is HOW DO I PICK BROKER?

You should first decide whether you want a telephoning broker or he should be an online broker as well. Then next you should find the following factors.

ü Quality of information

ü How fast is the execution of trade

ü The markets available

ü Costs attached with them

ü Check how much equities they would pay

ü Would they provide with CFD’S

ü How much fees would he charge on the unused cash in your trading account

ü How much discounts. Penalties will be there on frequent /infrequent trading.

WHAT ARE THE QUESTIONS YOU WILL ASK DISCOUNT BROKERS

How much do they charge for buying and selling shares?
Do they have any subscription fees
How do they buy and sell shares
Do they deal with telephone and internet both?
Do they offer trade discounts
Do they offer and added services like alerts, dynamic market data etc.
CHAPTER 16

GOLDEN RULES OF BUYING SHARES

9 golden rules of buying shares

1. STICK TO THE RULES- Always remember that the stock prices would go up and down, what is needed is to stick to your strategy which you have planned. Swaying away from the rules would only bring losses.

2. DIVERSIFY – Do not invest all your eggs in one basket; invest in various sectors not just the one which is mining.

3. BUY SHARES THAT SUIT YOUR TRADING CYCLES – if you are buying shares for a long term it definitely wont suit you if you are short term trader and it goes other way also... short term shares wont suit the long term trader as well.

4. KNOW YOUR RISK TOLERNACE – A speculative share has a different risk profile as to out of favor “ blue chip “.Allocate your capital according to your own risk tolerance and the risk profile of the trade.

5. DON’T RUSH IN – The market will be still there waiting for you when you are ready to trade. Learn about the market before you start trading particularly the new investors. The best way to start is with the PAPER TRADE, so as to learn the basics first.

6. DO NOT GET GREEDY – Don’t think that you will be a millionaire in a day, be practical and not over realistic. Don’t think it’s very easy, as it’s very easy to lose money also in the trade market.

7. ONKY INVEST WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD TO LOSE – if the shares are the cause of your worries then definitely either you have invested in the wrong ones, or you have far too many to handle, so SELL them , nothing in the world d is more important than your peace of mind.

8. NEVER EVER CHASE SHARES – exercise patience, never run behind the shares and purchase beyond your limits, because the time will definitely come when you will be able to buy them within your limits.

9. KEEP ACCURATE UP TO DATE RECORDS- The most important of all, for penalties for not declaring your profits and not paying the capital gains are too much high. So stick to the rules.