Posts Tagged ‘markets’

Anti-Trust Cops Anti-Nasdaq/NYSE Takeover

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

policia.jpeg
(photo credit: banspy)

What happens when the two largest stock exchanges in the U.S. become one big mega-exchange? A monopoly, that’s what! In case you don’t remember from history or economics class (or the game Monopoly), a monopoly is when one company controls an entire market, making it hard or impossible for smaller companies to fairly compete. (The market, in this case, being the market of stock markets.)

That’s why anti-trust regulators at the Justice Department have shut down Nasdaq’s attempted hostile takeover of the New York Stock Exchange. The takeover is hostile because the NYSE already has a deal with German bank Deutsche Borse to be acquired for $10 billion, and it’s so not interested in starting a relationship with Nasdaq right now.

The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq have been competing for years, which keeps them both in customer-pleasing, price-cutting mode. Without that competition, NYSEasdaq could charge whatever it wanted and still crush what little competition would be left.

It could even become… too big to fail!

Google Diversifies Its Empire…

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

robot-army.jpg
(credit: Sougent Harrop)

…with robot cars!

We’re always prattling on about the importance of diversification around here. You know, the “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” philosophy, applied to your investment portfolio. (If you don’t believe us that a diverse portfolio is the way to go, take the Timing the Markets Challenge!)

Well the same principle can apply to all areas of life – baskets of eggs, for example, or Internet empires like Google’s. They’ve been branching out from their humble search engine roots for years (email, document sharing, voicemail), but now they’re taking it to the streets. With robot cars.

Robot cars, as you might imagine, are currently illegal on U.S. roads. But if Google does a good jobĀ lobbying the Nevada legislature, then Sin City may become the first market for automated overlords vehicles.

Hey, if the Internet implodes some day, at least they’ll have something to fall back on.

The Black Market is…

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

The black market is the “marketplace” for anything that is illegal to buy or sell within a country. If you are buying something in a dimly-lit back alley, you are probably buying on the black market.

A Money Market is…

Friday, August 21st, 2009

A money market is a market for borrowing and lending money for three years or less. The securities in a money market can be U.S. government bonds, treasury bills and other short-term instruments.

Market Share is…

Friday, August 21st, 2009

Market share is the percentage of total industry sales that a company controls. It describes the strength of a company. If there are 50 greeting cards sold every year and your card company sells 40 of them, you have an 80% market share of the greeting card industry. Well done!

An Exchange is…

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

An exchange is any marketplace with established rules and regulations where you can buy and sell one or more types of commodities (stocks, bonds, options and futures, etc.).