:the engine room
THE ENGINE ROOM
Your guide to investing in shares
IF ANYTHING IN THIS world is well and truly misunderstood,
it is shares, but in fact they are a very good producer of investment
returns. Shares are the "engine room" of any investment portfolio and
when you invest in shares you will be rewarded (nice word) for taking
the risk, provided you take several key steps.
Stocks, equities, shares
In NZ we call them shares - in the US they call them stocks - and the
professionals call them equities.
THE INDEX
An Index is a measure of a market;
the NZX 50 index is the top 50 NZ shares, and a combined value is
calculated daily and this is what you see on TV most nights
the ASX 300 index is the top 300 Australian shares and is widely
quoted daily
the S&P 500 index is top 500 US shares and again, is widely quoted
daily
An index is very useful as it gives individual DIY investors and
professional fund managers a benchmark to compare with.
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