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FAQs tagged as

Investing-Basics

  1.

    What is a stock ticker?

  2. What is finance?

  3. I want to start buying stocks. Where do I start?

  4. Type Of Return

  5. If I buy a stock at $45 and I put a stop limit in to sell at $40, will I be guaranteed a sell once the stock has reached this price?

  6. Why are traders on the floor of the exchange?

  7. The “effective date” is defined as:

  8. Do stocks that trade with a large daily volume generally have less volatility?

  9. What does "gather in the stops" mean?

  10. What happens to a stop order after a stock splits?

  11. The "effective date" is defined as:

  12. Where can I find all of the stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average?

  13. How much more will it cost me to buy an odd lot of shares?

  14. What is the downtick-uptick rule on the NYSE?

  15. If the stock market is so volatile, why would I want to put my money into it?

  16. How do I calculate how much I've gained or lost on a stock holding?

  17. What are reverse stock splits?

  18. If I have a number of stock shares and that company reports earnings of X amount per share, do I receive those earnings?

  19. What will happen to my U.S.-based stock portfolio if the U.S. dollar substantially decreases in value?

  20. Why are the bid and ask quotes usually so far away from each other in after-hours trading?

  21. How do you calculate the percentage gain or loss on an investment?

  22. How many types of markets can an investor choose from?

  23. How does the ISIN numbering system work?

  24. How do I find historical prices for stocks?

  25. How do I calculate the adjusted closing price for a stock?

  26. Where can I get a company's prospectus and/or financial statements?

  27. Why do some stock quotes appear in bold print in the newspaper?

  28. What is the 'Rule of 72'?

  29. Can someone who is not yet of legal age open a brokerage account?

  30. Where does the money I have invested in a company go when the stock price decreases?

  31. What do the numbers that follow the bid and ask numbers in stock quotes represent?

  32. What do T+1, T+2 and T+3 mean?

  33. What is dead money?

  34. If I own stock that drops in price is this a sign that I should buy more?

  35. How do I buy an over-the-counter stock?

  36. What exactly is a portfolio? Is it something I can carry around?

  37. What is a "daisy chain"?

  38. Why do stock prices change following news reports?

  39. What are the "Dogs of the Dow"?

  40. How can I use market breadth to my advantage?

  41. What's the smallest number of shares of stock that I can buy?

  42. What's the smallest number of shares I can buy?

  43. What is the difference between yield and return?

  44. Who or what are the turtles?

  45. What is a CUSIP number?

  46. What are the "big uglies"?

  47. What's the difference between shares and stocks?

  48. Why do share prices fall after a company has a secondary offering?

  49. What is the "percentage off the 52-week high or low"? How is this calculated?

  50. Where can I find a company's annual report and its SEC filings?

  51. I hold stock certificates in a company that just had a stock split. What happens now?

  52. How can I find out if a company I like is included in an index?

  53. What does it mean when someone says that a stock went up X points? Does this refer to a percentage or numerical value?

  54. Where can I find historical stock/index quotes?

  55. What is the cheapest, fastest way to research, buy and trade stock?

  56. What are defensive stocks?

  57. What is a stock split? Why do stocks split?

  58. If one of your stocks splits, doesn't that make it a better investment? If one of your stocks splits 2-1, wouldn't you then have twice as many shares? Wouldn't your share of the company's earnings then be twice as large?

  59. How much will it cost me to become a casual investor on my own?

  60. Does a stock split lead to the gapping up/down of the stock?

  61. I'm new to this. Can I sell or buy stock by myself?

  62. Why are some shares priced in the hundreds or thousands of dollars, while other just as successful companies have more normal share prices? For example, how can Berkshire Hathaway's be over $80,000/share, when the shares of even larger companies are only

  63. What does it mean when financial news reports say that more issues were sold than bought?

  64. Are my investments insured?

  65. I have only $500 to invest, am I limited to buying only penny stocks?

  66. How long does a stock that has done a reverse split keep the letter "D" at the end of its symbol?

  67. Does the closing price have to equal the last price traded?

  68. What is an odd-lot buyback?

  69. What is the quickest, easiest and cheapest way to buy a bond?

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