For all the doomsayers, here's a primer on how and why a stock

market works. It's clear that many on DU have no idea of why Wall Street exists, and how what happens there influences all of our phony-balony jobs. Try reading this simple primer. Of course, the market is far more complex than the simple model it presents, but the principles are the same:

http://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/financial-planning/stock4.htm

Learn a little at that link, then expand your knowledge with more advanced information.

Credit Default Swaps and Naked Shorts?

is more complex? I believe I did. Without understanding the basics of how a stock market operates, it's certainly impossible to understand derivatives, isn't it. It's clear that many on DU haven't a clue about what stocks even are and how the stock market affects things like jobs.

You want to talk about complex derivative products? That's a different thread.

The Finance 101 model of the stock market isn't the problem. The problem is the graduate level finance courses.

If the market actually worked the way finance 101 describes, we wouldn't be in this mess.

we have what we have until we can get a handle on it, and that's not an instantaneous thing. Restoring sensibility to the market's going to be a tough job, if it's even possible. In the meantime, we need to get some sort of recovery going again.

My concept of restructuring Wall Street would be intensely frightening to the folks there, I have no doubt. Wouldn't it be great if it was actually an equities marketplace?

Still, a rising Dow does inspire a little confidence and perhaps a little spending, etc. That can't hurt. But we're going to have to have way more than a 60-vote majority in the Senate, and an overwhelming majority in the House before we're going to be able to do the kind of restoration work that's needed on the markets. For now...I'm just hoping we survive and recover a bit.

I don't buy it. I think due to the way that the advanced financial instruments are structured that the Stock Market is so divorced from actual reality that I've pretty much dismissed it as an indicator. If the market functioned the way it is taught in Finance 101, I'd believe we were showing signs of getting out of the woods.

I'll wait till I see real signs we've hit bottom. I'm not going to place my bets on a market that rewards employers for cutting as close to the bone as they possibly can to temporarily restore profitability and a banking sector that doesn't have to recognize their actual losses due to the fact that they changed the accounting rules in March.

I have money in the stock market and I hope it will go down so I lose it all. That will teach the bastards!

lose it all. They don't have a pot or anything to put in it.

:dunce: :bounce:

or to post intelligent things about it.

I couldn't even read the GD forum yesterday cause there were too many uninformed people saying too many stupid things. There are maybe a handful of us who want to have a serious discussion about this without just spouting non-sense...and I'm sure this thread is about to be taken over by all the non-sense users as well.

learn about a subject...just a little...before they make pronouncements.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6781786&mesg_id=6781786

If you try to discuss paleontology and the evolution of hominids in a room full of creationists who like to shout, guess how the discussion will go?

When they crash, people get hurt. Pure stupidity.

can understand why the stock market exists in the first place. So many DUers don't even have that basic information. I'm not suggesting that it is a perfect place, nor as simple as that site explains. That would be silly. But, if you don't know what stocks even represent, as so many apparently do not, then the basics are rather important.

:thumbsup:

Typically all threads about the stock market devolve into:

A) "The market is down today -- proves we are all doomed", or
B) "The stock market is eeevuulll"

I'm still hoping a few people will bother to read this and learn a little. It's one of the few explanations I've seen that actually explains the basic principles of a stock market, without a sales pitch on trading with the web site.

I'm getting criticized because my link doesn't explain the complexities of today's market. That wasn't my goal. I suspect that a lot of people here have no idea what a stock or bond actually is or why they are traded in a stock market.

That's frustrating, because without that information, all the rest is gibberish.

In any case the loudest voices on DU appear to be the least informed. Capitalism is a dirty word to them, and that's it. They seem to believe that the 300+ million people in the US can return to scratching in the dirt with a stick, plant a seed or two, and trade what they grow with others.

I have read some of the most ignorant stuff I could imagine here this year. That's not saying that there aren't a lot of knowledgeable people here who do understand the markets and how far they've strayed from what they're supposed to be doing. There are, but they're not the ones I'm addressing.

In practice they are not.

TARP was proposed on Sept 19, 2008, enacted Oct 3, 2008.

Watching the excruciating Kabuki dance over health care it's clear that TARP was done at blinding speed.

People are dying every twelve minutes due to lack of health care and yet making sure that the Banksters got their pound of flesh was so important to the powers that be that a massive giveaway was orchestrated and passed in about two weeks.

We can see what is truly important to the PTB and it damn sure isn't us, the people of America.