ANSWERS 1.
Where does the term " Wall Street"come from? In 1653 a 12-foot-high
wood stockade was erected across lower Manhattan from river to river to protect
Dutch settlers from attacks by the British and Indians. The Wall Street
of today is located along the line of the stockade. 2. Why is
1792 an important year in the history of the NYSE? The year 1792 is
important for the NYSE because in this year twenty-four prominent brokers and
merchants gathered on Wall Street under a Buttonwood tree to sign an agreement
to trade securities. The New York Stock Exchange traces its beginnings to
this historic pact. The first corporate stock traded under the Buttonwood
tree & the first listed company on the NYSE was the Bank
of New York. 3. What do we call a person who owns stock? 4. What is a bull? 5. What is a bear?
A bear is a person who thinks stock prices will go down. The term "bear"
comes from "bear skin jobbers" who were known for selling skins
from bears that they hadnīt caught yet. This term then referred
to short sellers, who are speculators who sold shares that they did not own, bought
after a price drop, and then delivered the shares. Bull and bear baiting
were once popular sports; as a result, "bulls" was considered the opposite
of "bears." I.e., the bulls were those people who bought in the expectation
that a stock price would rise, not fall. In addition, the cartoonist Thomas
Nast played a role in popularizing the symbols 'Bull' and 'Bear'. 6.
What is the difference between ...? a) an individual investor:
an individual or 'retail' investor investing his or her own money.
b) an institutional investor: a financial institution which invests large
amounts of money in the stock, bond, and other financial markets; a pension or
insurance fund. 7. What is the difference between ... ?
a) an investor: a person who makes investments; in common
parlance, the term "investor" usually refers to a person who buys & holds,
rather than one who buys & sells frequently. b) a trader:
one who buys & sells securities frequently, for his/her own account. c)
a speculator: a person who takes large risks, ie. gambling, in the hopes
of making quick, large gains. 8. What is the difference between
... ? a) a bond: respresents a loan from the bondholder
to a company.
b) a stock: represents ownership in a corporation. 9.
What is an IPO (Initial
Public Offering)?
Who gets the money from an IPO?
the company 10. What is the difference between ... ?
a) an individual stock
b) a stock mutual fund:
a collection of individual stocks | 
