Table of Content

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10 Minute Guide to Investing in Stocks

Introduction
     Extras
     Acknowledgments

Lesson 1. Confronting Your Fear of Stocks
     What You Need to Know Before Beginning
     Technical-ese
     Insufficient Financial Knowledge
     Stocks Are Only for Millionaires
     A Stock Market Crash
     Is Investing Like Gambling?
     It Will Take Too Much Time

Lesson 2. Why You Should Invest in Stocks
     Stocks Rock!
     Stocks vs. Bonds
     Stocks vs. Cash
     Stocks vs. Mutual Funds

Lesson 3. How Much Do You Have to Invest?
     Determining Your Overall Financial Picture
     Sufficient Savings
     Getting Rid of Debt
     Determining Your Expenses
     Paper Investing

Lesson 4. What Is a Stock?
     Stock Talk
     What's a Company Worth?
     Kinds of Stock
     The Two Main Issues of Stock

Lesson 5. The Five Types of Stock
     Stock Characteristics

Lesson 6. Stock Derivatives
     What Are Derivatives?
     Subscription Rights
     Warrants
     Options

Lesson 7. The Markets
     Trading Places
     The New York Stock Exchange
     The American Stock Exchange
     Regional Exchanges
     Over the Counter
     International Exchanges
     The Big Bang
     Other Markets

Lesson 8. Brokers and Brokerage Houses
     Types of Stockbrokers
     Role of Stockbrokers
     Securities and Exchange Commission
     Full Service Stockbrokers
     Discount Stockbrokers
     E-Brokers
     Educate Yourself

Lesson 9. Opening a Brokerage Account
     Getting Started
     Cash Account
     Margin Account

Lesson 10. How Much Stock to Buy and How to Buy It
     Determining How Much Stock to Buy
     Round Lots
     Odd Lots
     Determining How to Buy Your Stock
     Market Orders
     Limit Orders
     Stop Orders

Lesson 11. How to Pick Stocks
     Determining Your Objectives
     Determining Your Acceptable Level of Risk
     Inflationary Risk
     Political/Governmental Risk
     Market Risk

Lesson 12. Evaluating Stocks
     The Dreaded Math Part Made Easy
     The Price/Earnings Ratio

Lesson 13. Choosing a Strategy
     Investment Strategies
     Recommendations
     Research
     Buy and Hold
     Dollar Cost Averaging
     Constant Dollar Averaging

Lesson 14. How to Check Your Investments
     Congratulations!
     Reevaluating Your Portfolio
     Checking Your Stock's Performance
     Reading the Stock Tables
     Miscellaneous Information

Lesson 15. The Ticker Tape, Stock Indices, and Other Media
     The Ticker Tape
     The Indices
     The Dow Jones Average
     The NASDAQ National Market System Composite Index
     The Standard & Poor's 500
     The AMEX Market Value Index
     The NYSE Composite Index
     The Russell Indices
     The Wilshire 5000 Equity Index
     Other Media

A. Glossary
     Glossary

B. Resources
     Credit Reporting Agencies
     Financial Media
     Brokers
     Online Research

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