Financial Markets and Institutions

Define -

technical analysis: A method of evaluating securities by analyzing statistics generated by market activity, such as past prices and volume.

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fundamental analysis: A method of evaluating a security that entails attempting to measure its intrinsic value by examining related economic, financial and other qualitative and quantitative factors.

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value investing: The strategy of selecting stocks that trade for less than their intrinsic values.

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momentum investing: An investment strategy that aims to capitalize on the continuance of existing trends in the market.

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Dow Dogs Theory: A theory which says the market is in an upward trend if one of its averages (industrial or transportation) advances above a previous important high, it is accompanied or followed by a similar advance in the other.

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computerized trading: Trading with the use of a computer to make the trades on

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day trading: attempting to make profits by making rapid trades intraday

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high frequency trading: A program trading platform that uses powerful computers to transact a large number of orders at very fast speeds.

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2010 flash crash: The quick drop and recovery in securities prices that occurred shortly after 2:30pm Eastern Standard Time on May 6, 2010. Initial reports that the crash was caused by a mistyped order proved to be erroneous, and the causes of the flash crash remain unknown.

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exchange traded funds: A security that tracks an index, a commodity or a basket of assets like an index fund, but trades like a stock on an exchange.

Who is and what was/is their contribution to/views regarding stock market investing - Ben Graham: scholar and financial analyst who is widely recognized as the father of value investing. His famous book, "The Intelligent Investor", has gained recognition as one of the best and most important investment pieces written illustrating the fundamentals of a value-investing strategy. -

Peter Lynch: Peter Lynch is the legendary former manager of the Magellan Fund at major investment brokerage Fidelity. He took over the fund in 1977 at age 33. He ran the fund for 13 years and his success allowed him to retire in 1990 at age 46. His investment style has been described as adaptive to the economic environment prevailing at the time, but Lynch always stressed that you should be able to understand what you own.

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Burton Malkiel: Burton Gordon Malkiel is an American economist and writer, most famous for his classic finance book A Random Walk Down Wall Street. He is a leading proponent of the efficient-market hypothesis, which contends that prices of publicly traded assets reflect all publicly available information, although he has also pointed out that some markets are evidently inefficient, exhibiting signs of non-random walk.

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Jeremy Siegel: A professor at the Wharton School of Business, Jeremy Siegel makes the case for investing in stocks over the long run. He draws on extensive research over the past two centuries to argue not only that equities surpass all other financial assets when it comes to returns, but also that stock returns are safer and more predictable in the face of the effects of inflation.

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Harry S. Dent: uses the Science of Demographics to predict major economic and market shifts with uncanny accuracy… decades ahead of time.

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Warren Buffet: Known as "the Oracle of Omaha", Buffett is Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and arguably the greatest investor of all time. Value investor.

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John Bogel: the founder and retired CEO of The Vanguard Group. He is known for his 1999 book Common Sense on Mutual Funds: New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor

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Bill Gross: an American financial manager and author. He co-founded Pacific Investment Management. Gross also ran PIMCO's $270.0 billion Total Return Fund. Gross left Pimco to join Janus on September 26, 2014.

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Jim Kramer: James J. "Jim" Cramer is an American television personality, a former hedge fund manager, and a best-selling author. Cramer is the host of CNBC's Mad Money and a co-founder and chairman of TheStreet.com

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Julian Roberston: Julian H. Robertson Jr. KNZM is an American former hedge fund manager. Now retired, Robertson invests directly in other hedge funds, most run by former employees of Robertson's defunct hedge fund company.

five largest US brokerage firms Etrade, Scottrade, TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwab, Fidelity high, median and low stock price estimates for each of JPM Chase Goldman Sachs Citicorp Bank America Corporation US Bank Wells Fargo

High 76.00 218.00 67.00 21.00

Median 67.00 190.00 60.00 18.50

Low 60.00 138.00 51.00 13.70

50.00 63.00

44.25 55.00

41.00 47.00

PNC Morgan Stanley

100.00 42.00

92.00 36.00

83.00 33.00

How do you explain such differences in estimates for the same stock? Different brokers can have very different opinions about the direction the stock is going. This is also related to their opinion of the market, certain events, etc.