Financial markets

It is not good enough to know the list of , but you need to know how can you invest in these markets, and take advantage of the opportunities. Once you have studied our list of global trends, how do you take advantage in markets around the world.

1. If there is a particular company that you want to invest in:

ADR an "American Depository Receipt" is when a foreign company lists on the NYSE (or other exchnge) in hopes of attracting US investors. Look to see if that company is listed locally.

2. If there is a currency you think will appreciate:

buy / sell , futures, options....

3. If you believe that a particular region in the world will do well / or a stock market somewhere in the world will do well:

ETF exchange traded funds

Important Regional markets, and how to invest in them:

Asia:

China's stockmarket

For more information on the different Chinese stock exchanges, see the URLs for:

• Shanghai Stock Exchange http://www.sse.com.cn/

• Shenzhen Stock Exchange http://www.sse.org.cn/

• Taiwan Stock Exchange http://www.tse.com.tw/

The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong http://www.sehk.com.hk/index.htm

Latin America:

ETF's Brazil

USA:

Europe:

How to invest in these markets:

Trade the "asset class":

The easiest way to invest in foreign markets is through Exchange Traded Funds (ETF's). To do so, you need an account with a broker.

Primary vs. Secondary markets

Primary markets

where corporations and governments first issue the equity or debt for the first time to the public.

Debt - is underwritten by a syndicate of banks. The syndicate of banks buys the debt from the company, and then resells it to the public at a higher price.

Publicly offered equity or equity must be registered with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) with full disclosure about the financial health of the company. The costs of issuing public equity or debt can be overwhelming to many companies, so they often avoid public offerings and prefer to go with "private placements", where the debt or equity is sold under private negotiations between the company and large financial institutions (insurance companies, mutual funds, etc). Because they are private, the company does not need to register these placements with the SEC.

Secondary markets

where debt and equity are traded after they have previously been offered. There are two types of secondary markets; (a) auction markets, and (b) dealer markets.

Auction markets are the type you see where stocks are traded in an open stock market such as the New York Stock Exchange .

Debt, on the other hand, is normally traded in dealer markets, and not on open auction markets (exchanges). This consists of dealers communicating directly with one another by phone, fax, internet. Sometimes stocks are also traded in dealer markets, and are then called "over the counter" (OTC). The NASDAQ (national association of securities dealers automated quotation system) is the most famous OTC system. It now behaves much more like a regular stock exchange, but its origins were OTC.

The auction markets such as the NYSE are different than dealer markets in that all trading occurs on one floor (the floor of the NYSE). This is fundamentally different than the NASDAQ which is more of a connection of computer screens and dealers. Other than the NASDAQ, most OTC dealer markets are not communicated daily to the public.