How to trade stocks the smart way
Stocks & stock indices: the basics
STOCKS AND STOCK INDICES: THE BASICS What are stocks and stock indices? Stocks If a company’s stock belongs to you, you own a piece or a share of that publicly traded company. In CFD trading, the stocks themselves are never purchased and owned. Your chance to make a profit depends on your speculation on their price change, as we shall soon see.
Stock indices A stock index, such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Wall Street 30) or DAX 40 (the German Index), is an index that measures the value of a basket of stocks. In the case of the Wall Street 30 or DOW 30, it is made up of 30 top US companies, which currently include the following:
AXP
American Express Co
MCD
McDonald’s Corp
AMGN
Amgen Inc
MMM
3M Co
AAPL
Apple Inc
MRK
Merck & Co Inc
BA
Boeing Co
MSFT
Microsoft Corp
CAT
Caterpillar Inc
NKE
Nike Inc
CSCO
Cisco Systems Inc
PG
Procter & Gamble Co
CVX
Chevron Corp
TRV
Travelers Companies Inc
GS
Goldman Sachs Group Inc
UNH
UnitedHealth Group Inc
HD
Home Depot Inc
CRM
Salesforce.Com Inc
HON
Honeywell International Inc
VZ
Verizon Communications Inc
IBM
International Business Machines Corp
V
Visa Inc
INTC
Intel Corp
WBA
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc
JNJ
Johnson and Johnson
WMT
Walmart Inc
KO
Coca-Cola Co
DIS
Walt Disney Co
JPM
JP Morgan Chase & Co
DOW
Dow Inc
Table 1. The basket of stocks measured by the DOW 30 (Wall Street 30)
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