Stock Market

Archive for the ‘Articles’ category

1929 Stock Market Crash

January 27th, 2011

Arkaitz Arteaga asked:

Some economists regard the 1929 stock market crash as major contributing factor to the great depression. The speculative boom of the 1920′s caused the crash because of the build up of the economic bubble. The bubble was formed because in the 1920s, as the stock prices were increasing, many people invested in the market. As the prices kept increasing they continued to invest hoping the prices would go up forever. Most people borrowed money to invest in the market.

This continued till about 1929. Then the market started trading down. Most people panicked and this resulted in heavy selling of stocks. By the year 1933, the stock prices were down 80% from the highs in 1929.

This led to people feeling poor. This led to decrease in the demand for various products in the market. Companies that tried to raise money in the market failed miserably. This led to shortage of money for manufacturing products or providing services. Companies started firing their employees because they wanted to scale down production. As you can guess, this led to the great depression. This period lasted about 4-5 years till 1934. All this was caused due to lack in confidence. This was preceded by confidence in the stock market. This turn of confidence was caused by a small negative sentiment in the market.

The speculative boom of the 1920′s was one of the factors that contributed towards the great depression. The speculative boom was caused due to the heavy investing in the market. The heavy investing was taking place due to most people trading on margin. Some traders were trading on 90% margin. The banks were also invested in the stock market. When the stock prices went down, people lost faith in the entire financial system and this lead to banks failing by the hundreds. This could have been avoided if there were proper regulatory procedures for the banks and the stock market in place. There should have been a limit on the margin you can use to trade. There should have been some restrictions on the banks from investing the depositors’ money in the stock market.

Needless to say, the regulators learnt a lot from this cash. It required some time before the trust in the financial system came back. The federal government then set up the federal deposit insurance corporation. Due to the presence of FDIC the banks could run out of money to pay back but still escape as the government reimbursed the depositors. The regulatory rules and procedures in place now are stricter and prevent the economy from crashing like it did in 1929.

You as an investor or a trader can learn a lot from this crash. In the late 1920′s people began to invest without doing any research about the stocks they were buying. In those times, the trader who was in the floor had more information than the common people trading. This led to lack of information among investors. Now, due to internet and disclosure policies, the common investor can have all the information about a company before investing in it. Good research will give you confidence about your investment and you will not panic when your stock price goes down or the general market conditions are bad.

Caffeinated Content – Members-Only Content for WordPress

No comments »

Posted in Articles

Tags: Stock Market Crash

Put Option – Stock Put Options

January 26th, 2011

Nick Hunter asked:

What are Put Options?

A Put is a contract on a particular stock, index or other security that allows the investor to sell the underlying stock at a set price (strike price).

The holder of his option has paid a premium (cost of the contract) to buy it. Put options are profitable when the market is in decline. If the investor has a put on a stock that has now fallen enough to cover the cost of the premium, the person would be profitable.

Ways to Profit with Put Options

Trading them:

If the Put is profitable, the investor can sell or trade the contract back to the market. The profit on the contract is shown by the premium increase on the option. As the market declines, the premium increases. This premium increase allows the investor to sell the contract. He is not “exercising the option”. He is trading it out. This is how most options are done vs. exercising.

Exercising them:

When an investor exercises a Put Option, he or she is selling a stock they already own. The right of a put holder is the right to sell the stock at the strike price, regardless of the actual price in the market. If you owned a Put with a strike price of 50, and the market has declined to 40, you could purchase the actual the stock in the market at 40 and then exercise the put at 50. You would make 10 points on that stock, minus the premium paid.

The break-even for investors who own put options (disregarding commissions) is the strike price minus the premium paid. In the above example, if the investor paid $300 for the option – his break-even would be 47. Since the market in our example went down to 40, the actual profit for that person would be $700.

Writing a Put Option

When you sell or short a put option, you are “writing” the contract. The writer is someone who is bullish on the market. The seller collects the premium (as opposed to the buyer who pays the premium) and is hoping the option expires worthless. The premium is the writer’s maximum gain. So, obviously if the premium is all that he can make – having the option expire is the best case scenario.

Put option writing does carry risk. If the option is exercised (by the holder/buyer), the writer must purchase the stock from the holder at the strike price. In the example above, the writer would have had to buy the stock at $50 (the current price), while the market was at $40. He would be stuck with a stock 10 points above the market. His loss would be lessened by the premium received. The writer can buy back the put before it is exercised, but if the put has gained value, the purchase price would be higher than the premium he originally got – so, it would be a loss either way. The option is expiring is the best bet.

Covered Put Option Writing

Since the seller or writer of puts must purchase the underlying stock at the strike price, he must have the cash to do that. Selling stock short and using the proceeds to cover an exercised option can be done. Also, the premium received for selling the put option can assist a short position to get greater profit.

As with any option, time is the biggest factor. Put options expire monthly. All options carry large risks, but can present large profits. Educate yourself further and talk to your broker.

Learn More: Put Options

Stock Market

No comments »

Posted in Articles

Tags: Exercise

How Does a Stock Market Crash?

January 25th, 2011

Banjo Smyth asked:

Have you ever wondered “how does a stock market cash” or “is it possible to take advantage of a stock market crash”?

Did you know that it is easier to make money during a stock market crash than it is during a raging bull market – Why? Because stock investing is driven by two emotions:

FEAR & GREED

If you look at the stock market history & old stock market graphs you will notice that the stock market index falls much faster than it rises. There is an old saying that “the bulls need to walk up the stairs but the bears jump out the window”. So once again let’s look at the question how does a stock market crash.

The main reason behind a stock market crash is Fear. Whether it was the stock market crash of 1929, the great depression or the current credit crisis that we are going through, whether it is in the USA, Australia or Iceland the main reason behind the crash is fear.

When investing in shares or getting stock market advice people often forget to think about all of the other investors who are doing the exact same thing. Plus the majority of money invested into the market doesn’t come from mum and dad investors but huge corporations and fund managers.

Whenever you buy shares you are buying them at a time when other investors have done two things
1. They have already bought the shares and are sitting on a profit or a loss.
2. They have already sold the shares with a profit and a loss and are looking at the right time to buy them again.

Taking this into account, let’s pretend that you buy share at $20. 6 months ago this share was trading at $14 and it has slowly climbed to $20 and you are hoping that it will continue to rise. You know own the share just like the all the investors who had already bought it but there is one big difference – Theses other investors are all sitting on profit. So they are now watching the stock price like a hawk because the last thing they want is a stock market crash to come along and wipe out their profit. To make things even worse most investors aren’t only thinking about the profit but they have already spent the profit in their heads. So when the share price starts to turn around you think “it’s ok, I’m sure it will come good” – whereas they are thinking “oh no I don’t want to lose my profit (new car) I better sell. This fear of losing profit starts to grow and more and more people start jump off the bandwagon – Apart from you who has bought at the top, your still saying “I think it’s going to turn around”.

So how does a stock market crash? Of course there are many contributing factors but fear is most definitely the biggest. Unfortunately for most investors they end up losing money because they typically buy when the market is high and sell when the market is low.

So how can you not fall into that trap? Simply by knowledge, education and experience. No one will be able to time the market perfectly (buy at the low and sell at the peak), not even Warren Buffet does that. But if you can buy during the bottom 30% of the market and sell during the top 30% you will go along way to becoming a successful investor.

What about making money when the market is crashing? I said before that you can actually make money during this period and that is true. Why? Because fear is much easier to predict than greed therefore the market moves quicker. So if you know a few very simple strategies you will actually be able to make huge profits in a quarter of the time.

So maybe the question you should be asking yourself is not how does the stock market crash but how can I take advantage of a stock market crash?

Create a video blog