Stock Market Fundamentals By: John Porter

As so many people opt for online trading one wonders what are the reasons for so many people going for something new leaving the traditional method. A little investigation throws up quite a few reasons.

First of all it is convenient and easy. You don't have to leave your room. Who could have imagined a few years before to trade on stocks while lying on his bed with his laptop in front of him? But this is how easy online trading has become. And who wouldn't want that extra bit of comfort. With online trading you can trade at whatever time you feel. Yes, you can trade beyond actual trading hours of the market. So now you can come back from you regular work, take a shower, have your dinner, spend time with your family and before you go to bed spend an hour looking at your investments.

But whatever the comfort may be and however convenient it is to carry out trade online, you still will require to know the fundamentals of the stock market. We discuss a few here.Growth Buying Stocks are shares or stocks of companies which are making healthy profits over the recent few years. Since the companies are generating more revenue and are growing at a rapid rate, there stocks are on high demand. This pushes up the price because investors think even a high price is okay cause the stocks will keep on rising. Though that might be true for the recent future, there is a time when the prices will stop to rise or may even start to decline. To predict that time is what separates a good investor from an ordinary one.

Unloved Stocks are shares of companies that have not been doing well in the recent past, and hence investors are not to keen. When there is a lack of interest, the price per share drops and many investors believe that this is the right time to invest on them when you buy the shares for less, wait for the company to recover and regain its feet and then sell them at a high profit when the price begins to climb as the company generates higher revenue.Then you will also need to learn about the small-cap, mid-cap and large-cap shares. And then there are the micro-cap shares which are mostly involved in the various share market scams.

However, the fact that fundamental analysis shows that a stock is undervalued does not guarantee that it will trade at its intrinsic value any time soon. Things are not so simple. In reality, real share price behavior relentlessly calls into question almost every stock holding, and even the most independently minded investor can start doubting the merits of fundamental analysis. There is no magic formula for figuring out intrinsic value.When the stock market is booming, it is easy for investors to fool themselves into thinking they have a knack for picking winners. But when the market falls and the outlook is uncertain, investors cannot rely on luck. They actually need to know what they're doing.

That said, there is much that the investor can do to learn about fundamentals. Investors who roll up their sleeves and tackle the terminology, tools and techniques of fundamental analysis will enjoy greater confidence in using financial information and, at the same time, will probably become better stock pickers. At the very least, investors will have a better idea of what is meant when someone recommends a stock on strong fundamentals.

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