Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Understanding the NYSE and Indexes

By Samantha Asher

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is located in New York City. It is one of the biggest stock exchanges in the world and lists over 3,200 companies. The NYSE allows buyers and sellers to trade stock efficiently among each other. Just as a supermarket allows business to be conducted between merchants and consumers, the NYSE allows stock to be sold between buyers and sellers.

The Hybrid Market, which began in January of 2007, has turned everything in the NYSE electronic. Before, everything happened on the floor, but now stocks can be traded electronically. The NYSE is very efficiently set up. Stock brokers have to understand the floor well in order to know where to buy which stock.

All stock brokers on the floor must hold a seat on the exchange. There are 1,366 seats available that are bought and sold similar to stock on the exchange itself. They are very expensive but are required to be on the floor and trade.

The Dow and the S&P 500 are two of the most widely used Indexes. The Dow is short for Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the S&P 500 is short for the Standard & Poor 500. The Dow lists 30 large corporations, and the S&P 500 lists 500, as expected.

The value of the Dow is computed using a price-weighted average. This is done by adding up all the prices of each of the 30 stocks and then dividing it by 30. This keeps a proportionate number among each of the stocks. The Dow is looked at as a portfolio holding one share of each stock each at the same price (after the price-weighted computation).

The S&P 500 is computed a little differently, but is considered a better index to count on because it holds 500 stock and because of the way it's computed. A market value-weight is used which means it is calculated based on the market value of each companies shares outstanding. If one stock has half as many shares outstanding as another, it is weighted half as much.

Market Value Indexes were created to evaluate the stock market as a whole. By comparing one index from one time to another, they can see if the market has been going up or down and how quickly. You will often see these indexes being stated on financial television channels and during financial segments of the news.

If you want to succeed in the stock market, you must understand the exchanges you buy from and the indexes well. They will help you tremendously and have been proven to be effective.

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