When you hear the words “stock market,” it sounds like a frightening mess that is impossible to make sense of. Bears, bulls, short, call options, IPO–what do all of these things mean? What is the point of the stock market? What is a stock anyway? Who is buying and who is selling? All of this may seem confusing, but in truth, the stock market is based on two fundamental principles: buy it low, sell it high, or sell it high, and buy it low. With that in mind, let’s dive in! What is Stock? Succinctly, a common stock is a share of a company (which is why stocks are also called shares). For example, if a company had one million shares, and you bought one share, you would own one millionth of a company. Another type of stock is preferred stock, which is less volatile (i.e. less likely to vary a lot in price) than common stock and has higher priority than common stock when paying dividends. Even though preferred stocks do not include voting rights, it still signifies ownership of a part of the company. So what does this ownership mean? Voting rights (only common stock): you get to decide on company matters. This is why shares are actually very important in companies; the more shares you have, the more decision-making power you have. This is why it is recommended for one person in a private company (typically the CEO) to hold at least 51% of the shares, so that decision-making can be faster and more streamlined. Dividends: There are two kinds of stocks, and each pays a different dividend (i.e. a part of the company profit). Common stock is not guaranteed a dividend–every quarter, the company can choose if they want to pay a dividend or not. Preferred stock, however, must pay a dividend every month or quarter. However, dividends are often not a reliable way to make money fast, especially with common stock. The most common use of stock is to buy it at a low price, say $10, then sell it at $30. While this kind of price increase is highly unlikely (Apple stock only increased about 130% over the course of the past year), assuming it were to happen, you would turn a profit of $20. The hard part is predicting whether the stock will rise or fall. A company first sells stock during its IPO, which is the first time the company allows the public to acquire shares. This is known as the primary market. There are multiple motives behind this: To raise money. Billions of dollars can be raised at IPOs. To allow public ownership. Going forward, the company must satisfy popular demand, and there is no easier way to do that than allowing the public to get a say in company matters. Buy or Sell? So when should you buy, and when should you sell? If you believe a stock’s price will go up, you should buy the stock as soon as possible. For example, if you believe the stock price will increase from $10 to $20, you probably want to buy it when it still costs $10, rather than wait for it to increase to $15, to maximize profit. You should sell when you think the price will go down. For example, say you bought this stock at $10, and it has now reached $20 but is predicted to drop down to $15. In order to maximize profit, you should try to sell it at the highest price ($20) rather than a lower price ($15). Of course, it is hard to predict price increase and decrease. Here’s a simple guide on how to get a relatively good idea on what the price of the stock will look like in the future: How is this company doing? If it’s suffering a lawsuit, for example, less people will be likely to give this company money or buy its products and earnings will be reduced, thus driving down the stock price. Are they going to have any new sources of revenue in the near future? I remember Intel stock dropped because they had delayed the release of their new computer chip. Many people sold their stocks on that day, driving down the price by a lot (about 17%). What is its potential for growth? Is it already a mature company that won’t grow rapidly anymore? Or is it likely to develop in the future? Do a SWOT analysis: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats. Look at current stock trends (i.e. stock price over past year, global economy performance, industry performance, national economy performance). Another thing to keep in mind (this part is fully my opinion): the more money you invest, the shorter you should keep it in the stock market. Why? Imagine you invest $200 in the stock market. Over the course of half a year, the stock grows by 5%, and at the end of the year, it increases by 10%. If you had sold your stock in the middle of the year, you would have earned $10. But if you wanted to make $10 when only investing $100, you would have to wait until the end of the year. So what’s the downside of investing more? Well, if the price dipped by 10% instead at the end of the year, if you had invested $200, you would be losing $10. On the contrary, if you have invested $100, you would only be losing $5. Hence, keeping a lot of money in the stock market at once can be dangerous, and it is usually a better idea to sell stock at first gain, in my opinion. Advanced: Call Options, Margin Accounts Earlier, I said a way to make money in the stock market was to buy low and sell high. But what about selling high, then buying low? At first, this seems absurd: how can you sell stock without buying it first? It turns out, this can be accomplished with something called a margin
Young Bloggers
Prejudice against women scientists
There are many hardworking scientists who were unfairly denied the recognition they deserved; perhaps one of the more notable examples of this is the case of Rosalind Franklin. She made a revolutionary discovery about DNA, only to have the credit stripped from her. Her long journey to this earth-shaking discovery eventually amounted to nothing (at least, for a few decades). And even though there were rules, perhaps even laws against such acts, humans are ultimately bound only by the laws of nature. Franklin was born into an affluent family and started her education at St. Paul’s Girls’ School. There, she excelled in her studies, especially science, and found her way to Cambridge, an honor that was not granted to most women at the time. She graduated from Cambridge in 1941 at the age of 21, but the arrival of World War II put a sudden halt to her blossoming scientific career. Nevertheless, she became part of a research group during the war effort and was actually able to use her findings there for her doctorate thesis in 1945, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. She then studied X-ray diffraction (the process of using X-rays to determine the crystal shape of materials) until 1950, which would prove particularly useful when she migrated her studies to deoxyribonucleic acid, more commonly known as DNA. Using the X-ray diffraction techniques she had acquired, Franklin was able to find the density of DNA and even established its shape as a double helix. These were revolutionary discoveries and provided much-needed enlightenment in the field of DNA. Unfortunately, everything would start to go downhill from there. Maurice Wilkins, a colleague of Rosalind Franklin who worked in the same lab, had a personal feud with Franklin, prompting him to take Franklin’s famous “Photo 51” (the one that established the shape of DNA) and use it without Franklin’s permission. This happened to be the final piece of a DNA study conducted by James Watson and Francis Crick which had eluded them for so long. Combining this and all of their other work, they were able to get a Nobel Prize for their discovery. Egregiously, however, they barely gave Rosalind Franklin any credit, and according to Kat Zukaitis in her article “A Nobel Experiment: Rosalind Franklin and the Prize,” Rosalind Franklin’s name was mentioned, “only in passing.” If you think this was the only instance where a woman scientist was discriminated against, you would be wrong. A scientist named Lise Meitner worked with Otto Hahn during World War II, and they discovered nuclear fission together. However, Otto Hahn took the Nobel Prize for himself, and it was not split between the two. This was not necessarily Hahn’s fault but still goes to show that there has been a history of discrimination against women scientists. What is perhaps even more upsetting is that Franklin never knew that her work was taken, even to the day of her death. According to Britannica, “Franklin was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1956 … and she passed away on April 16, 1958.” She passed away before she had time to bask in the respect of millions around the globe and to feel rewarded for her accomplishments. She wasn’t able to see how big of an impact her work had on the world, all because her work had been used without her permission. Throughout history, many women have been denied the recognition they deserve, including Rosalind Franklin. These stories show that when humans are left to their own devices, they do what they please, even if there are rules against doing so. Prejudice against women scientists was prevalent at the time, and the snuffling of the accomplishments of Rosalind Franklin is a great example. Even though all genders were originally created to be equal, there was no rule set in stone to enforce the concept; hence, people thought it was okay to discriminate against women when it really isn’t.
A Lantern of Chinese Tradition
A Chinese lantern is typically red. It has a red string at the top to hold; it also has some Chinese words on its body and gold strips at the bottom. It is normally in red and gold because both colors mean richness and luck, as a traditional wish. Inside of the Chinese lantern is made of red cloth and has a candle to light it up. Thousands and millions of Chinese lanterns are hanged in the sky over the streets on the day of the Chinese Lantern Festival. The festival is in the first month of Chinese lunar year and it is often in January or February. On the day, people like to eat sweet rice dumplings and go to guess riddles which they can find at the bottom of lanterns. If they get the right answer, the sellers of the Chinese lanterns will give them a gift. To celebrate the Chinese Lantern Festival, I have made my own orange lantern. It has no strips. Instead, it has a wood stick and four red strings to hold at the top. You can write Chinese words on it or you can paint it. Inside of it definitely has orange inner skin; you can also put a candle in it, if you want. For this orange lantern, I used a big orange, some strings, a needle, and a chopstick. The first step was to cut the top of the orange open, and then to take out the orange inside carefully. The second step was to get the needle and string and put it through the peel near the cut and do the other one in the opposite direction. The third step was to get the chopstick and tie the two ends of the two strings together on the stick. The fourth step was to take the excess and string it around the stick to make a knot for extra security, or else the strings might get loose and the lantern might fall. It is fun to eat all of an orange and play with an orange lantern at the same time.
