The Stock Market Industry Beta measures the movement of a stock’s trading process compared to the market as a whole. Knowing this figure one can understand how volatile a stock is. When a stock has a beta of 1, it means that its price fluctuates exactly as much as the market. If a stock has a beta less than 1, then it is more predictable than the market, and if the beta is more than 1, then it’s more volatile than the market.

Betas can be determined for entire industries also. The “industry beta” would compare the volatility of the industry relative to the whole market. Generally, a beta more than 1 would mean that technology stocks are more volatile than the industry.

To find the industry beta, you have to have some historical data of the price of the industry stock and the historical price data of the entire market. For example if you were going to calculate beta over the last year for compare technology stocks versus the S&P 500, you would first gather the historical data you need. Next, you have to determine the movements of the two prices after every trading day. This will give a percentage change versus the previous day. Once we have 365 of these we can average the group to determine the average move each made over the last year. Call the average industry movement Ri and the average market movement as Rm. Divide the technology industry’s movement by the S&P’s average movement, and you’ll have an outcome of 1 (equally volatile), less than 1 (less volatile), or more than 1 (more volatile). If you write the function, it would look like:

Ri / Rm or B = Covariance (Ri , Rm)/ Variance(Rm)

Beta can be of great use in stock research when it comes to judging how risky a stock is versus a stable investment with a guaranteed rate of return. Also know that the longer the period of time beta is acquired, the more accurate beta will be. Beta is also valuable when used with stocks that have a long record of high volume trading. Smaller stocks that don’t trade a lot can fluctuate wildly on a busy day and throw the beta out of whack for the period being measured.

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There are no loads of sites through which you can start to make money investing online. With the help of the internet more traders are using the online stock market to turn a profit from their holdings.

The online stock exchange comes with its own set of potential pitfalls that traders must dodge on a daily basis. To avoid falling into the traps that many investor unwittingly fall into when trying to make money by investing in stocks online, follow these simple tips.

The first pitfall is the temptation to take part in a large number of active trades over a long timescale. Active trading is where you are continually trading stocks as their prices rise and fall.

The main reason that online stock investing has become so popular is because it is so easy to get online and check how your stocks are doing whenever you want. Watching your stock go up can increase the pressure you put on yourself to sell. This can also be true the other way round, while watching the value of your stocks go down can make your panic and back out.

Stock brokers rely on you doing this, because every time you make a transaction through them they get a percentage of the money you invest. Whether you made a profit or a loss on the stocks you will lose 1-2% on every transaction that you make. This makes making a profit a little harder from the beginning.

When buying stock for a short term gain you usually have to ignore the company that you are buying as the short term market doesn’t take into account the profits of the company only the amount of demand there is for the companies stocks. Many traders buying the same stock will increase the company’s stock price regardless of how the company is doing.

The long term markets takes the actual profits posted by the company into account when setting market value for the stocks of that company. Relying on wild swings of the market is like betting at Vegas, eventually the house always wins. Short term investing can be very profitable but it can be very risky to continue in this vein for a longer period of time.

Then making sure the companies that you invest in have plenty of potential for long term profitability is best when you first enter the world of online stock investments. Where as long term investments may sound dull and boring, they are a better and safer way to becoming a successful investor. This could be the best way for you to make the most of your online stock.

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