Tag: Stocks

Long Term Vs. Short Term

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The difference between long term and short term stocks is fairly self explanatory, but it’s important to fully understand both types of investments before investing yourself. A long term investment is an investment that the investor intends to rise over a long period of time. A short term investment is just the opposite. Anyone who intends an investment to be short term hopes that the value of the stock will rise over a short period of time. Both types of investments are great and it’s important to understand the differences of both before investing in any company.

That’s all for now, Ben

Foundations of a Great Company – Mattel

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Company Name: Mattel

Ticker Symbol: MAT

Founder(s): Harold Matson, Elliot Handler, Ruth Handler

CEO: Christopher Sinclair

Mattel.png

In 1945 Harold Matson and Elliot Handler started Mattel, a company that sold picture frames. Matson later sold his part in the company to Elliot Handler and Ruth, Elliot’s wife, took over Matson’s role. The company went on to sell dollhouse furniture and is now one of the biggest toy companies in the world. You may know them for their popular Barbie dolls or Hot Wheels cars. Last year alone they made $6 billion. The company even made it’s way into the S&P 500. The current CEO once worked as the CEO of Pepsi Co meaning he has plenty of experience. The company has about 31 000 employees and is still growing. Mattel has $1.8 billion in debt, but as of this post being published, the company is worth over $11 billion. With the money they made last year they could have payed off their debt 3 times and still have had some money left over. I actually thought this was such a strong company that I invested in it several weeks ago and it has gone up since then. I would definitely invest in this company if I were you, but don’t just take my advice. Even some of the worlds best stock traders are wrong about certain companies. You should always do your research before investing in any company.

That’s all for now, Ben

 

Getting to Know Your Quarterly Report

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Legally in both the United States and Canada, companies must create a quarterly report.  This quarterly report is available on every company website (as long as the company is public).
The report contains what expenses the company had to pay and what profits they made in the past 3 months. This report is very detailed and will definitely help when you’re considering investing in a company.

Sometimes the quarterly report and other investor information can be difficult to find on a companies website, so here are some from major companies:

3M,Google, Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Bed Bath and Beyond, Best Buy, Boeing, Campbell Soup, Coca-Cola, Dr.Pepper-Snapple Group, Ebay, Electronic Arts, Facebook, Fedex, Ford, Gap, General Electric, General Motors, Hasbro, Home Depot, Kellogg, Keurig, Mastercard, Mattel, Mcdonalds, Microsoft, and Apple.

Thats all for now, Ben

Shares Outstanding

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Shares outstanding is a term used to express how many shares a company has for sale. This information can be use to calculate what percentage of the company you own and market cap (which will be explained in a later post). If a company has 100 000 shares outstanding they literally have 100 000 shares on the market for sale. Shares outstanding is very simple information but it is an extremely important deciding factor when choosing wether or not to buy stocks from a company.

That’s all for now, Ben

Stock Splits

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A stock split is when a company decides to “split” it’s stocks. The value of all stocks is split in half to allow people to invest in the company with less money. Don’t worry though, if you held stock in a company that announced a stock split the amount of stocks you own would double. A stock split is always great if you don’t have much money to invest with.

That’s all for now, Ben

Blue Chip Stocks

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Blue chip stocks are stocks in strong, industry leading businesses. These companies are fairly stable and always growing. The name is thought to be derived from gambling, where the blue chips are the highest value of chips used in a casino. The stocks for blue chip companies can be expensive, but they almost always go up in price overtime. Some blue chip companies include Apple, Google, Coca-Cola, and Starbucks.

That’s all for now, Ben

Bears & Bulls

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Why do I keep hearing about bears and bulls? These are terms to descrbe how the stock market is doing. A bull market means that the market is trading up on average. The opposite is a bear market. This means that the market is trading down on average.  You always want to invest in a bull market, otherwise you lose money. Nobody knows where the term came from, but some think its because a bull raises its head when its about to charge and a bear lowers it’s head when it’s about to charge.

That’s all for now, Ben

Stock Brokers

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Stock brokers are the people that help you trade stocks. They can be real life people or online programs. Basically they do their best to make sure that your order is filled. If you were to request 50 shares in Apple inc, the stock broker would look for the best deal they could find and then finish the transaction. Personally, I prefer online stock brokers. They are cheaper and quicker to use, although they can’t offer good advice like real stock brokers can.

Thats all for now, Ben