online auction website. This market works in the same way - it allows
buyers and sellers to negotiate prices and carry out successful trades. The
first stock market took place
in a physical marketplace, however, these
days, trades happen electronically via the internet and online stockbrokers.
From the comfort of your homes, you can easily bid and negotiate for the
prices of stocks with online stockbrokers.
Furthermore, you might come across news headlines that say the stock
market has crashed or gone up. Once again, don't
fret or get all excited
when you come across such news. Most often than not, this means a stock
market index has gone up or down. In other words, the stocks in a market
index have gone down. Before we proceed, let's explore the meaning of
market indexes.
Stock Market Indexes
Market indexes track the performance of a group of stocks in a particular
sector like manufacturing or technology. The value of the stocks featured in
an index is representative of all the stocks in that sector. It is very important
to take note of what stocks each market index represents. In addition to this,
giant market indexes like the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the NASDAQ
composite, and the Standard & Poor's 500, are often used as proxies for the
performance of the stock market as a whole. You can choose to invest in an
entire index through the exchange-traded funds and index funds, as it can
track a specific sector or index of the stock market.
Bullish and Bearish Markets
Talking about the bullish outlook of the stock market is guaranteed to get
beginners looking astonished. Yes, it sounds ridiculous at first, but with
time, you get to appreciate the ingenuity of these descriptions. Let's start
with the bearish market. A bear is an animal you would never want to meet
on a hike; it
strikes fear into your heart, and that's the effect you will get
from a bearish market. The threshold for a bearish market varies within a 20
percent loss or more.
Most young investors unfamiliar with a bear market as we've been in a bull
market since the first quarter of 2019. In fact, this makes it the second-
longest bull market in history. Just as you have probably guessed by now, a
bull market indicates that stock prices are rising. You should know that the
market is continually changing from bull to bear and vice versa. From the
Great Recession
to the global market crash, these changing market prices
indicate the start of larger economic patterns. For instance,
a bull market
shows that investors are investing heavily and that the economy is doing
extremely well. On the other hand, a bear market
shows investors are scared
and pulling back, with the economy on the brink of collapsing. If this made
you paranoid about the next bear market, don’t fret. Business analysts have
shown that the average bull market generally outlasts the average bear
market by a large margin. This is why you can grow your money in stocks
over an extended period of time.