Stock FAQs

what causes stock prices to rise and fall

by Jake Botsford Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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Stock prices go up and down based on supply and demand. When people want to buy a stock versus sell it, the price goes up. If people want to sell a stock versus buying it, the price goes down. Forecasting whether there will be more buyers or sellers of a certain stock requires additional research, however.Jan 28, 2022

How do fundamental factors affect stock prices?

Company earnings can heavily influence a stock’s rise or fall, but earnings alone won’t tell you everything you need to know. Knowing the fundamentals will give you a better understanding of the value of a company.

How do technical factors affect stock prices?

It would be ideal if investors could evaluate a stock’s current – and future – value on fundamentals alone. But the fact is, there are many external criteria that could impact the supply and demand for a certain stock. These are known as technical factors.

What's the impact of news on the share price of a company?

There’s no doubt that good news or bad news can influence share prices. If there’s a new government economic report suggesting that Canada’s economy is growing at a good clip, it will likely boost demand for stocks, and increase prices.

What is market sentiment, and how does it impact share price?

Market sentiment, or investor sentiment, is a loose measurement of investor optimism in the economy, or confidence in the Canadian and U.S. stock markets. Are they feeling positive and hopeful? Or cautious and nervous?

How do seasons and holidays affect the stock market?

The stock market tends to repeat certain seasonal trends year after year. The fabled “Santa Claus Rally” in December is just one example. During these time periods, share prices can be especially volatile.

Falling and rising stock prices in a nutshell

The bottom line is this: all investment vehicles, whether individual stocks, bonds, mutual funds and so on, fall or rise as a result of many different factors. Sharp investors will want to pay especially close attention to the short-term and long-term market movements.

More Frequently-Asked Questions

Stock market cycles are driven by large institutional investors, but fueled by economic factors such as economic growth rates, inflation or deflation, lower or higher interest rates set by the Bank of Canada or the U.S. Federal Reserve, and unemployment rates. This, in turn, can impact market/investor sentiment, both negatively or positively.

Why do stocks move up?

Often a stock simply moves according to a short-term trend. On the one hand, a stock that is moving up can gather momentum, as "success breeds success" and popularity buoys the stock higher. On the other hand, a stock sometimes behaves the opposite way in a trend and does what is called reverting to the mean. Unfortunately, because trends cut both ways and are more obvious in hindsight, knowing that stocks are "trendy" does not help us predict the future.

What drives stock prices?

Stock prices are driven by a variety of factors, but ultimately the price at any given moment is due to the supply and demand at that point in time in the market. Fundamental factors drive stock prices based on a company's earnings and profitability from producing and selling goods and services. Technical factors relate to a stock's price history ...

Who is David Harper?

Forces That Move Stock Prices. David Harper is the CEO and founder of Bionic Turtle. He is also a published author with a popular YouTube channel on expert finance topics. Thomas Brock is a well-rounded financial professional, with over 20 years of experience in investments, corporate finance, and accounting. ...

What is FFO in real estate?

Real estate investment trusts (REITs), for example, use a special measure of earnings power called funds from operations (FFO). Relatively mature companies are often measured by dividends per share, which represents what the shareholder actually receives.

Is inflation bad for stocks?

2  Deflation, on the other hand, is generally bad for stocks because it signifies a loss in pricing power for companies.

What is valuation multiple?

The valuation multiple expresses expectations about the future. As we already explained, it is fundamentally based on the discounted present value of the future earnings stream. Therefore, the two key factors here are:

What is discount rate?

The discount rate, which is used to calculate the present value of the future stream of earnings. A higher growth rate will earn the stock a higher multiple, but a higher discount rate will earn a lower multiple. What determines the discount rate? First, it is a function of perceived risk.

What happens to the economy when the economy declines?

They will also spend more money, which will flow into publicly traded companies and improve their earnings. A declining economy, and especially a recession, results in a reversal of all of those positive dynamics. The net effect on the market is typically negative.

How many publicly traded companies are there in 2019?

However, the number of publicly traded companies has fallen to 3,473 as of Dec. 31, 2019. Fewer publicly traded companies means more competition for available stocks. That raises the price of the surviving stocks, causing the market to rise.

What is advertising disclosure?

Advertising Disclosure This article/post contains references to products or services from one or more of our advertisers or partners. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products or services

When was the Wilshire 5000 index created?

For example, the Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index started in 1974 and was so named because it represented the approximately 5,000 publicly traded companies on US stock markets. But the number has changed dramatically over the years.

Where does Kevin Mercadante live?

He has backgrounds in both accounting and the mortgage industry. He lives in Atlanta with his wife and two teenage kids.

What is public sentiment?

Public Sentiment. This is often tracked by surveys and opinion polls, which makes it an inexact science at best. But when people feel good about the state of the nation, its finances, the economy and the international balance, it usually has a positive impact on the stock market.

What is supply and demand?

Supply and Demand. This refers to supply and demand as it relates to the amount of stock that is available for public trading. Like every other commodity, stocks will generally rise when fewer are available. That plays out in different ways, and is likely having an effect on the current market.

It's important for investors to understand what drives stocks and the market up and down

Tim writes about technology and consumer goods stocks for The Motley Fool. He's a value investor at heart, doing his best to avoid hyped-up nonsense. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @TMFBargainBin

What can affect stock prices?

High demand for a stock relative to supply drives the stock price higher, but what causes that high demand in the first place?

The big picture is what matters

Long-term investors, like those of us at The Motley Fool, don't much care about the short-term developments that push stock prices up and down each trading day. When you have many years or even decades to let your money grow, things such as analyst upgrades and earnings beats are irrelevant.

How to determine the value of a stock?

The important things to grasp about this subject are the following: 1 At the most fundamental level, supply and demand in the market determine stock price. 2 Price times the number of shares outstanding (market capitalization) is the value of a company. Comparing just the share price of two companies is meaningless. 3 Theoretically earnings are what affect investors' valuation of a company, but there are other indicators that investors use to predict stock price. Remember, it is investors' sentiments, attitudes, and expectations that ultimately affect stock prices. 4 There are many theories that try to explain the way stock prices move the way they do. Unfortunately, there is no one theory that can explain everything.

What is the most important factor that affects the value of a company?

The most important factor that affects the value of a company is its earnings . Earnings are the profit a company makes, and in the long run no company can survive without them. It makes sense when you think about it. If a company never makes money, they aren't going to stay in business.

How often do public companies report earnings?

Public companies are required to report their earnings four times a year (once each quarter). Wall Street watches with rabid attention at these times, which are referred to as earnings seasons. The reason behind this is that analysts base their future value of a company on their earnings projection.

What is the value of a company?

The value of a company is its market capitalization, which is the stock price multiplied by the number of shares outstanding . For example, a company that trades at $100 per share and has 1,000,000 shares outstanding has a lesser value than a company that trades at $50 but has 5,000,000 shares outstanding ...

How often do public companies report earnings?

Public companies are required to report their earnings four times a year. If a company’s earnings are better than expected, its stock price increases. But if a company’s results are worse than expected, its stock price will fall. Simple as that.

Is it a good time to buy or sell stocks?

If you are a beginning investor, you might wonder when it is a good time to buy or sell stocks. When attempting to understand why stock prices rise and fall it helps to understand the law of supply and demand. The only thing that is certain is that stocks are volatile and can rapidly change in price. If an item or service is in short supply, people ...

How is the price of crypto set on centralised exchanges?

On centralised crypto exchanges, the prices is determined between two parties using the traditional order book model that conventional exchanges like the S&P 500 or ASX use. The order books are just a record of all open buy and sell orders for a particular crypto.

How is the price of crypto set on decentralised exchanges?

Peer-to-peer trading occurs on DEXs through automated smart contracts (programs) that execute trades without an intermediary. Instead, DEXs use liquidity pool protocols to determine crypto pricing. These exchanges execute trades or ‘swaps’ between users directly and instantly from wallet to wallet. There is no intermediary like in a CEX.

1.Bitcoin

Bitcoin is the king of crypto and its price action in both directions moves the rest of the market. If you want to know more about when Bitcoin moves the price of other coins up or down, have a read of this great article on t he crypto market fundamentals you need to know before investing.

2. Whale manipulation

Whales are crypto holders with very large bags of a particular coin. You can get Bitcoin whales, Ethereum whales etc. Whales can use their coin share to move the market with large buy or sell orders. Whales can do this in conjunction with options trades, to make profits.

3. Trading patterns

Crypto traders trade assets according to the same trading rules and patterns. They all use the same indicators. This makes the patterns they use to signal buy and sell trades self fulfilling. Everyone sees the signal and makes the trade.

4. Trading bots

This one is linked to trading patterns. Programs are now available so that traders can execute trades using bots (or automation) and based on conventional trading patterns and rules. For example, it’s common for trading bots to be set up to buy up a certain cryptocurrency when the price retraces to .618 of its previous high.

5. The news that moves the market

Crypto markets are very news sensitive. Project news and development milestones can and routinely do cause particular coins to pump or dump. Hardfork, testnet and mainnet release announcements will generally move the price significantly.

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Fundamental Factors

Technical Factors

  • Things would be easier if only fundamental factors set stock prices. Technical factors are the mix of external conditions that alter the supply of and demand for a company's stock. Some of these indirectly affect fundamentals. For example, economic growthindirectly contributes to earnings growth. Technical factors include the following.
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News

  • While it is hard to quantify the impact of news or unexpected developments inside a company, industry, or the global economy, you can't argue that it does influence investor sentiment. The political situation, negotiations between countries or companies, product breakthroughs, mergers and acquisitions, and other unforeseen events can impact stocks and the stock market. Since s…
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Market Sentiment

  • Market sentiment refers to the psychology of market participants, individually and collectively. This is perhaps the most vexing category. Market sentiment is often subjective, biased, and obstinate. For example, you can make a solid judgment about a stock's future growth prospects, and the future may even confirm your projections, but in the meantime, the market may myopica…
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The Bottom Line

  • Different types of investors depend on different factors. Short-term investors and traders tend to incorporate and may even prioritize technical factors. Long-term investors prioritize fundamentals and recognize that technical factors play an important role. Investors who believe strongly in fundamentals can reconcile themselves to technical forces with the following popular argument…
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