Guest Youth N Asia Report post Posted July 26, 2002 OK...when the day on Wallstreet is all said and done and the DOW has drop 1,200 points...why does everyone stand up on the balcony clapping like retards with big grins on their faces...if the market is strong I could understand this... Explain Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest cdstunner66 Report post Posted July 26, 2002 It's stupid allright, but it's a tradition. Usually they have guests ring the closing and opening bells. The majority of applause is for them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Shaved Bear Report post Posted July 26, 2002 yea, unless they rally like 400 or so points like they did a couple of days ago,its more of an applause for the tradition i guess Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest NoCalMike Report post Posted July 26, 2002 The Stock Market is a scam for the most part. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest LooseCannon Report post Posted July 26, 2002 The Stock Market is a scam for the most part. Would you care to elaborate? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest J*ingus Report post Posted July 26, 2002 I agree with Mike to an extent. It's essentially the world's largest roulette game. There is often no visible reason for exactly why the values move up or down like they do. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest NoCalMike Report post Posted July 26, 2002 QUOTE (NoCalMike @ Jul 26 2002, 06:57 PM) The Stock Market is a scam for the most part. Would you care to elaborate? Sure. Well the stock market was designed primarily to just keep a constant flow of money and to give people the chance to "buy into" shares of the company. The reality of the thing is, millions of stock holders put money into the stock market yet the percentage of people benefiting are is a rather small amount. Then you have situations like Enron, where people who have all their money invested, can just have their life savings wiped out because the company lied and cheated...etc...... There are those RARE and I mean RARE cases out there, where some Joe Shmoe puts his stock into Krispy Creme when they first started and now is very rich, but those cases are few and far between. Basically when you invest into the stock market you are giving corporations your capital(money) to invest into their company and use your money, which when you sell, you get back. In order to make anything worth while though you need to have at least 100,000 - 200,000 to invest. That is why most millionaires are all invested because American Banks usually only have your account insured up to $100,000 The problem I have is that the Stock Market is so wishy-washy and very unreliable that it is just not worth the time. If I had lots and lots of money to spare then yah, I would give it a shot, but I would never put my Savings Account into it hoping I would come out with a nest egg. You also have the problem with Insider trading, like the whole thing Martha Stewart is going through...... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest LooseCannon Report post Posted July 26, 2002 I wouldn't say the statement is indefensible. I'm just curious as to the reasoning. I wouldn't say there is any great mystery as to why a given stock's price fluctuates, though. EDIT: Didn't see NoCal's post above when I posted this. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest cdstunner66 Report post Posted July 26, 2002 "I agree with Mike to an extent. It's essentially the world's largest roulette game. There is often no visible reason for exactly why the values move up or down like they do. " Actually it's based on speculation on the most part. If company "A" looks to do well then people will buy the stock. The more people that are buying, the higher the demand for shares, and thus the higher the price per share. But there are differences in companies. A company can be a growth company, meaning that the companies earnings are directed towards developing new products. This kind of company almost never pays a dividend to shareholders and has volitile stocks. Then there are value companies, these are historicly the "blue chips", generally large companies that have a history of paying their earnings back to shareholders in the form of dividends. The stock prices for value companies in generall are much less volitile than growth companies. Now the reason the market is in the situation it is in is mostly this. The common investor is more emotion driven thjan the larger institutional investors (mutual funds, etc.) so when you have a few large companies being hammered for misrepresented earnings and fraud, like Worldcom and Enron, people start mistrusting the analysts. At this point, the mistrust has grown to such a point, when a large number of companies report positive earnings, like last week, the everyday investor doesn't believe it. They are so skittish that they assume the reports are going to be false and sell in a situation where they should hold or increase their position. This happened on such a scale, that the market has been driven to 5 year lows. The media screaming gloom and doom doesn't help either. The market is a crapshoot, if you are trying to either get rich quick or day trade. But if you pick your stocks intelligently and hold them according to the timeframe in which you will actually need the money. It's a lot safer than you think. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest LooseCannon Report post Posted July 26, 2002 The problem I have is that the Stock Market is so wishy-washy and very unreliable that it is just not worth the time. If I had lots and lots of money to spare then yah, I would give it a shot, but I would never put my Savings Account into it hoping I would come out with a nest egg. You also have the problem with Insider trading, like the whole thing Martha Stewart is going through...... No one would tell you to put all of your savings in the stock market. A diversified portfolio is the way to go. When one buys stock, he is purchasing equity in the company. If the company grows the value of the stock will rise. Sometimes the laws of supply and demand affect a stock's price. If there is an irrational demand for a given stock by investors than it's price will be inflated. If one pays careful attention to p/e ratios, however, he avoids buying into a stock whose value is artificially inflated. The stock market does not benefit relatively few people. You get what you put into it though, and hopefully you don't get screwed over by fraud. It's an investment just like anything else. The gambling anology doesn't work so well, because with a little study, it's really not all that comparable to betting on the roll of a dice, which is pure chance. Stock prices on the other hand rise and fall for a reason. I'm not saying that sometime's there's not an aspect of guessing involved, but a stock's growth is not pure chance like the flip of a coin. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest NoCalMike Report post Posted July 27, 2002 The problem is the way corporations work and cheat people out of things. They purposely lie in order to gain more capital from the people and then turn around sell off the stocks take the money and run. I know that not all corporations do this but plenty of "blue chippers" do. I find it ironic that we have wall street gurus and the current administration telling people to keep pouring money in, yet the people keep getting jipped and played by CEOS... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Michael Joel Benoit Report post Posted July 28, 2002 The stock market is the ultimate represntation of why I hate captialism. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
