A Look Into Lights: Excerpt from Lights Academy Project “Stock Significance”

Sam Smolen, Lights Featured Writer

What is the significance of the American Stock Market?
Let’s first start off by asking, what is the stock market? The stock market is an exchange where you’re given the opportunity to enhance your wealth. It’s a pretty simple concept but can get very complex in some parts. The basis of the idea is that a company offers a percentage of their company to the public. Once this is done people can buy a part of this company in hopes that the price they paid for it will go up so they can make profit. The company gains money to further build and grow. It sounds like a win on both sides. However there is a downside to this idea. People can invest in a company and if the price they paid goes down then they lose money. When this happens other people see the downfall and pull out as well causing a complete downward spiral for the company. About half of the American adult population owns a stock as of 2022. The stock market is a major contributor to our economy.

The American stock market provides an opportunity to the general public to enhance their wealth with risk in mind. It stimulates our economy by helping companies and corporations as well as the public. The stock market allows anyone who is willing to put in the time to make money. The market helps the rich become richer and the poor to become wealthy. It is also a very fair opportunity. No one is excluded from the market. Anyone is allowed to buy and sell stock. Companies profit from selling shares. This gives them a boost and allows them to expand. The public profit from buying into these companies and either selling with short term rewards or keep their share with long term rewards in mind. Long term investing can help people retire. All in all, the American stock market is very significant and helps keep the “American Dream” alive. The “American Dream” is what sets America apart from other countries. It is the opportunity that America offers to become rich. The stock market can help anyone achieve the “American Dream”.

What is the stock market?

A place where investors buy and sell shares of a company. Companies list shares to grow their company. Gaining support from investors gives them a boost.

What’s the first step before investing in the stock market?

One of the first things you can do is open a brokerage account. A brokerage is an individual or group of people that charge a fee for executing trades on behalf of the investor. If the time is available to you, you can research on your own time and invest in individual stocks.

When is the best time to buy a stock?

The market opens at 7:30 am Mountain time and closes at 2 pm. The last hours the market is open for is considered the best time to invest because of significant price movements. This is caused by last minute investors trading and selling before the market opens.

 

Want to learn more? Click the link to view Sam’s entire project: https://significancestocks.weebly.com/

Want to hear more from Sam? Click the link to check out Sam’s Portfolio: https://samsmolen.weebly.com/