Exam 2: Financial Markets

Each stock's rate of return in a given year consists of a dividend yield (which might be zero) plus a capital gains yield (which could be positive, negative, or zero). Such returns are calculated for all the stocks in the S&P 500. A weighted average of those returns, using each stock's total market value, is then calculated, and that average return is often used as an indicator of the "return on the market."

The annual rate of return on any given stock can be found as the stock's dividend for the year plus the change in the stock's price during the year, divided by its beginning-of-year price.

You recently sold 100 shares of Microsoft stock to your brother at a family reunion. At the reunion your brother gave you a check for the stock and you gave your brother the stock certificates. Which of the following best describes this transaction?

Which of the following is an example of a capital market instrument?

The term IPO stands for "individual purchase order," as when an individual (as opposed to an institution) places an order to buy a stock.

If you decide to buy 100 shares of Google, you would probably do so by calling your broker and asking him or her to execute the trade for you. This would be defined as a secondary market transaction, not a primary market transaction.

A share of common stock is not a derivative, but an option to buy the stock is a derivative because the value of the option is derived from the value of the stock.

The "over-the-counter" market received its name years ago because brokerage firms would hold inventories of stocks and then sell them by literally passing them over the counter to the buyer.

A financial intermediary is a corporation that takes funds from investors and then provides those funds to those who need capital. A bank that takes in demand deposits and then uses that money to make long-term mortgage loans is one example of a financial intermediary.

Which of the following statements is CORRECT?

Which of the following statements is CORRECT?

A publicly owned corporation is a company whose shares are held by the investing public, which may include other corporations as well as institutional investors.

The NYSE is defined as a "primary" market because it is one of the largest and most important stock markets in the world.

Which of the following statements is CORRECT?

Trades on the NYSE are generally completed by having a brokerage firm acting as a "dealer" buy securities and adding them to its inventory or selling from its inventory. The Nasdaq, on the other hand, operates as an auction market, where buyers offer to buy, and sellers to sell, and the price is negotiated on the floor of the exchange.

In a "Dutch auction" for new stock, individual investors place bids for shares directly. Each potential bidder indicates the price he or she is willing to pay and how many shares he or she will purchase at that price. The highest price that permits the company to sell all the shares it wants to sell is determined, and this is the "market clearing price." All bidders who specified this price or higher are allowed to purchase their shares at the market clearing price.

If you wanted to know what rate of return stocks have provided in the past, you could examine data on the Dow Jones Industrial Index, the S&P 500 Index, or the Nasdaq Index.

Financial institutions are more diversified today than they were in the past, when federal laws kept investment banks, commercial banks, insurance companies, and similar organizations quite separate. Today the larger financial services corporations offer a variety of services, ranging from checking accounts, to insurance, to underwriting securities, to stock brokerage.

The NYSE is defined as a "spot" market purely and simply because it has a physical location. The Nasdaq, on the other hand, is not a spot market because it has no one central location.

Which of the following is a primary market transaction?