Sunday, October 5, 2008

Dynamic Stock Market Content

Dynamic stock market content can be gathered from hundreds if not thousands of Internet websites and blogs, not to mention TV and radio programs. Dynamic stock market content allows you to get a good picture of what's going on on Wall Street as well as other places around the planet. You will also get stacks of analysts' opinions and advice (some good, some bad) about how to trade, about what to put into your portfolio and what to do dump out of your portfolio.

When you are looking at dynamic stock market content, you should not pay overly much attention to the short term movements of stocks. Stock market activity is all too often driven by raw emotions of fear and greed, and the typical person is either too enthusiastic or too pessimistic about a given stock at a given time. Brokers on the floor of the exchanges have an obligation to make trades as their clients tell them to, and it's illegal for anyone to trade a stock without going through a licensed broker. However, brokers often also act like salesmen, giving "advice" that is misinformed or else represents a conflict of interest (they are trying to maximize their commission). They MUST do what their client tells them to do, but they often try to influence that command; so that coupled with people buying and selling on emotion rather than discipline and information can create a lot of crazy scenes in stock exchanges.

All good investors know that a person has to buy and sell with a long view in mind. This long view may comprise several weeks, a few months, a year, or lots of years. But successful investors don't care too much about the day to day dynamic stock market content; they are more interested in long-term trends and a security's historical performance. They look to the day to day activities only to keep abreast of these things; they are never controlled by it.

Other dynamic stock market information, as mentioned above, will come in through commentaries and articles written by or quoting supposed market gurus. If they or some mutual fund manager says that they are high on Stock X but don't recommend Stock Y, day trading investors will rush to buy or sell those stocks. This generates a great flurry of dynamic stock market content for the websites and programs, but it means little in the face of reality. Successful investors look at other factors to make their decisions. They look at a company's financial status (not necessarily profits) and strength or weakness; they look at the market sector as a whole that the company is in; they decide if a company's bid and ask prices may be too high or too low depending on their independent research into a company.

In sum, don't let all the dynamic stock market content control you. You will need to think for yourself, and while considering all the streaming information and piled-up data don't be controlled by it.

Impact of Oil Prices on the Stock Market

Impact of oil prices on the stock market is inversely proportional. A shoot in oil prices leads to a nose dive in the stock market. And a decrease in oil price on an average leads to a higher stock market return. So, the effect of oil prices becomes predictable in the stock market. The effect is profound when the oil prices increase in the magnitude of 50% to 100% annually. The reasons being:

1. Any movement in the oil prices results in uncertainty in the stock market.

2. Higher the oil prices, higher the transportation, production and heating costs.

Say, a decrease in the oil prices by 10% in US will result in the expected return to double up on the stock market in the following month. The waves of the impact on the world market index will make its presence felt significantly. Though the stock market moves in the opposite direction with respect to oil prices, it is basically a one way traffic. The stock market returns has no impact on the crude oil prices.

The entire stock market does not get equally or at the same time affected by the fluctuation in the oil prices. It is rather subtle. The US industrial sectors that get most affected with rise in oil prices are:

1. The cyclical Services sector gets most negatively influenced. They constitute the general retailers, support services, media, entertainment, leisure, hotels and transport.

2. The sector which follows next in order is Cyclical Consumer goods. These include household goods, textiles, automobiles and parts.

3. The next negatively influenced sector is the Financials. They comprise of investment companies, banks, life, assurance, insurance, real estate, specialty and other finance.

During an oil price rise, it is advisable to hold on to energy stocks shift focus from the mass market general retailers. It is a rather straight forward approach. Rising oil prices results in the escalation in the prices of fuels and lubricants along with passenger transport mediums either by road or air. For example, it takes a cup of crude oil in the production of the plastic for a single disposable nappy.