THE STOCK EXCHANGE MARKET

THE STOCK EXCHANGE MARKET

Securities market provides a means whereby investors can buy and sell stocks. They operate amazingly fast .The New York Stock Exchange boasts that once the order to sell has been placed, it can take less than one minute to dispose of a stock such as IBM.

The two kinds of securities markets are stock exchanges and over-the-counter (OTP) markets. A stock exchange is an organization whose 'members join together and provide a trading room where members can meet to buy and sell securities for their customers .Stock exchanges provide a key service : they organize all the information that exists at any one moment about the price at which investors are currently willing to buy and sell particular stocks.

They do not hold an inventory of stocks for sale, they are merely a place for matching a buyer with a seller .The second, very important kind of market place for stocks and other securities is the OTC market .This market consists of a network of registered stock and bond representatives scattered across a country who trade with each other by phone or teletype They provide stocks to their customers by holding stocks in inventory .They are also ready to purchase stock from their customers and thus they are said ' to make a market ' in that stock..

Many important national newspapers print reports of daily tradings in specific stocks and bonds, along with various stock averages. The best known average is the Dow Jones industrial index which represents an average of thirty leading industrial stocks from the U.S.A. The name of this average comes from two American economists C.H.Dow (died in 1902) and E.D. Jones (died in 1920).

When the stock market is rising, we speak of a bull market. When it is declining, we speak of a bear market. The origin of these terms is rather uncertain, but you can remember which by recalling that a bull tosses an attacked upward with its horns while a bear wrestles downward to the ground.

Business people and investors also carefully follow other news that may have a bearing on the market, including broad social trends and the state of the national and international economies.

Customers may also invest through a mutual fund or an
investment company in which many investors pool their money to buy securities .Each investor owns shares in the fund and the fund uses the pooled money to buy stocks or bonds issued by various companies.

These investment societies are especially useful for small investors who don't have time or experience to find investment opportunities .Due to their diversified portfolio, mutual funds diminish investment risks. They also offer liquidity to their customers that can turn their shares into cash whenever they want.

Many business people are interested in the prices of the raw materials they use to produce finished goods .These raw materials, which are known as commodities, are traded on commodity exchange markets. These markets operate just as the stock exchange market.

Text Comprehension

1. Vocabulary

Securities = hartii de valoare

Stocks = pachete de actiuni

Share = actiune individuala

Shareholder/ stockholder = actionar

Bonds= obligatiuni

OTC (over the counter- la vedere/pe tejghea) market = piata actiunilor necotate la bursa

Bearing = influenta

Average = mediu (adj.), medie (subst.)

A bull market= pata bursiera in crestere

A bear market = piata bursera in scadere

Commodities = bunuri de larg consum

2. Answer the following questions:

What are the functions of the stock exchange market?

Who were C.H. .Dow and E. D. Jones ?

Who influence the increase and decrease of the stock exchange ?

What is the OTC market ?

What do investment companies do ?

Speaking and writing

Stock exchanges all over the world react to various events whose nature may or may not be economic. . Give examples of the way in which such events (wars, earthquakes, change in political regimes, rising prices, etc.) have influenced the stock exchange and the economic life as a whole.