Reading the Financial Pages for Dummies®

Chapter 5. Investing in Shares

In This Chapter

• Working out what sort of shares suit you best

• Making the most of the financial pages

• Understanding debt

• Considering how stocks shape up against cash

You don't need me to tell you that stocks and shares aren't the only way of running your investment portfolio. But they're always a good place to start, because the performance of the stock market pretty well determines what happens in a lot of other parts of the investing universe. And besides, a company's share price is one of the most reliable ways of telling what the business world thinks about that company – or, indeed, about the state of the business economy in general.

I'm going to tell you now that there are quite a lot of things you need to be aware of when you go out looking at stocks. But this chapter sets out some of the basic principles that underlie the stock market, and it shows you how the financial pages cover them. Chapter 6 will give you a bit more chapter-and-verse detail about the mote technical aspects.

First, I just want to say – don't panic! Much of the information in this chapter may sound very strange if you're new to the investing game, and unfortunately an awful lot of terminology's involved. But I explain the process of investing in shares in an easy-to-follow manner and you're going to be fine.

If you find yourself itching to discover more about any of the subjects I covered in this chapter, or indeed in any chapter, you can gain a wealth of detailed information in ...