The Stock Market

If you pay any attention to the news, you probably hear about the stock market on a daily basis. It's usually something like the Dow went up or down x number of points or the NASDAQ went down or up some percentage. You may not be buying or selling any stocks, but it's pretty obvious that what the stock market does on a daily basis has large implications for a lot of people, including people that you know.

What are stocks? What does it mean when the Dow goes up or down? If you want to invest in the stock market, and pretty much every investor's portfolio has some portion in stocks, then it's important you understand how the stock market works so that you can make it work for you.

In this topic, you will learn what stocks are, how to research stocks, read stock quotes, and understand how the stock market really works. You might even leave this topic wanting to explore more and more about the stock market yourself.

Essential Question

• How does the stock market really work?