Read and highlight the paragraphs below "What is the Stock Market? on this Google Doc" . Use the highlighting tool in Google Docs. develop definitions for the bold terms. Use a dictionary if you are unsure of a definition or would like a clearer understanding beyond the reading. Please write complete sentences in your own words.
The business of buying and selling stocks is known as the stock market. Stocks, or shares in a company, are bought and sold in a place called the stock exchange. The most important stock exchange is on Wall Street in New York City. Usually the stock market reflects the business world. If business is good, the value of stocks, or shares in a business, go up, and it is called a bull market. If business is poor, however, stocks go down, and the market is called a bear market. During the twenties the prevailing market was a bull market. By 1927 more and more people were getting rich from their investments in the stock market. This led others to use all their savings to invest in the market for a handsome profit or dividend. After all, they wanted to cash in on an easy way to make money. Some people began buying on margin, which means they would pay a percentage of the purchase price and then borrow the rest of the money from the stockbroker who sold them the stocks. When a panic of wild selling caused the prices of stocks to plummet in mid-1929, a devastating crash followed. Stockbrokers had to sell as the stock prices fell, leaving people with worthless stock holdings. Worse yet, stockholders still owed money on their stocks because they had purchased them on margin. People had to sell their homes or cars to repay their loans. Businesses began losing money and were forced to lay off masses of workers. Banks that loaned the money in the first place had to close their doors when the loans went unpaid. Today the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC as it is commonly called, regulates the stocks and bonds, or securities, market. An independent government agency, the SEC was formed in 1934 with Joseph P. Kennedy as its first chairman.
Make a copy of the Google Doc and share it with Mr. Morse. or write the definitions to the ten bolded words on paper, photograph it and send it to jim.morse@fivetowns.net