What is forex?
Chapter 1: What is forex? Of all the financial markets, forex is the biggest. Roughly $4 trillion is traded globally every working day. And in many ways it’s the easiest to get your head around. ‘Forex’ or ‘FX’ stands for ‘foreign exchange’. You sell the currency you are holding, let’s say Pounds Sterling, and buy […]
What are indices?
Chapter 1: Intro You’ll often hear about stock market indices on TV news reports and in the financial pages. So what are they – and why do they matter? How many times have you heard experts refer to the FTSE 100, S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Hang Seng, DAX, CAC or Euronext or other indices? The reason why they are mentioned […]
What are commodities?
Chapter 1: Intro Commodities are incredibly important – and yet very few people know how they work. They matter because commodities affect so many aspects of our lives: they’re in the food we eat, the metals used in so many of the products we own, and the energy we consume. At some stage in their […]
What are shares?
Chapter 1: Intro Imagine you own a piece of a company. That’s what happens when you buy a share. Shares are how companies parcel out the money that they raise to carry out their business. That money is called ‘capital’ or ‘equity’ – and shares are also referred to as ‘equities’ or ‘stocks’. So, if […]
What is an IPO?
Chapter 1: Intro An IPO is the first time that a company offers shares (or ‘floats’) to the public on a stock exchange. It stands for ‘Initial Public Offering’, but you’ll often see it short-handed to ‘going public’ which has the same meaning. Which exchanges are we talking about? They could include the London Stock Exchange, the New York Stock, Euronext, or the Hong […]
