Tag Archives: shares

Understanding Stock Market Terms

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The stock market plays a crucial role to the economy of any nation. Essentially, stock market brings together investors who wish to acquire and trade stocks and shares, and other investments as well such as government bonds.

To understand more about stock market and provide basic stock tips, the following common stock market terms are discussed in a manner that an average person may easily understand the term.

Shares

This is probably the most common the stock market terms. A share refers to the smallest piece of ownership to the company. A person who is a shareholder is also part with the growth and profits of the company. A shareholder has the right to obtain the company’s report and accounts. Furthermore, he has the right to be involved in deciding for the operations in the company through the privilege to vote for the members of the board.

Share certificate

A purchase of share comes with a share certificate as evidence of ownership. The value written on the certificate generally small compared with the share price on the stock market. Furthermore, the value in share certificate is impertinent to the current market value of the shares, and is obligatory only for legal purposes.

Dividend

Most companies distribute their revenues with shareholders through dividends. A shareholder generally receives payment each share twice a year. However, in the event that there are no revenues a particular year, consequently a shareholder will not receive dividend. The company’s board of directors establishes the degree of dividend, which will then voted by shareholders for approval. A shareholder may generate profits on shares as a result of capital growth, since the value of the shares also increases with the progress of the company. However, a shareholder may only take advantage of this by selling his shares.

Market capitalization

In stock market terms, market capitalization is the extent of a company’s value on the stock market. Worth of companies can range from just a few million dollars to more than a hundred billion dollars.

Bull and bear markets

These stock market terms are used on situations that presume that stock markets are either growing or declining. Bull market refers to sustained increase of stock market over period. On the other hand bear market refers to the steady downward movement of the stock market.

Stock market is a highly complicated industry and involves lots of technical jargons; so stock tips on these will definitely come in handy. Furthermore knowing the basics has been always the first step in every venture, and recognizing these stock market terms are the first part of learning the business.

Private Pensions – Have You Got One Started?

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The sooner you get a private pension started the better. The rule of thumb is that so long as something is going in to a retirement investment rather than nothing you’ll be ok. Leaving a pension to the last minute is not the right course of action; you need to invest in a pension plan as soon as you can, the earlier the better.

Saving for your retirement is easier than you think, why not put a couple of these tasks in to action, you’ll be better off for it.

Some people deicide not to have a private pension and lie more on the capital appreciation in the home. But, if the value of your house falls so will your retirement funds. ISA are another good way of getting tax relief on your savings and will help towards your retirement as well.

Deciding when you want to retire will depend on how much money you have in your pension pot and what amount of revenue that will give you. If you can reply on less earnings then you could retire earlier, but the state pension age for retirement for men is 65 and for women it is 60.

Deciding on how much you want to put into a pension depends on what you can afford. If you can put 5 or 10 percent of your earnings away each month, then that will be a good start. Don’t forget that you still need to use most of your income to live comfortably today.

You can invest your pension plan into an index tracking fund or you can use ISA’s, both can be used. You can top up your funds when ever you like too.

It’s a good idea to keep track of the performance of your funds and see what your investment is running to in terms of growth for your pension pot.

Don’t worry yourself about dips in performance, this is due to share and market performance and in the long term these investments should come back and perform as expected.