Stocks are certificates issued by companies to raise funds.
By investing in a company and holding this certificate, you become a shareholder.
If a stock is listed on the Korea Exchange, it is called a listed stock.
Listed stocks can be bought and sold at any time through a securities firm account.
Let's say your friend's chicken restaurant, 'The Chicken', is a publicly traded company.
My friend said he needed 200 million won to open 'The Chicken' and asked me to invest only 100 million won.
They say that if you invest 100 million won, they will give you a chicken every month and 10% of the profits every year.
I will become a shareholder with 50% stake in the chicken restaurant.
Here, chicken is provided monthly and 10% of the annual profit becomes a dividend.
Of course, if business doesn't go well, you may not receive chicken or dividends.
Since I, as a shareholder, can make money only if the chicken restaurant does well, I have the right to intervene in the management of the chicken restaurant through the general shareholders' meeting, saying things like, "The chicken needs to be crispier," or "Why are there so many part-time workers?"

--- p.18

What exactly does preferred stock mean? It means paying a higher dividend than common stock.
In the case of Samsung Electronics, although preferred stocks are 15% cheaper than common stocks (as of August 2020), the dividend per share is the same as that of common stocks.
It's the same Samsung Electronics, but it's like receiving dividends at a cheaper price.
But there is no such thing as a free lunch.
There are things you have to give up to get more dividends.
It is the right to vote.
Voting rights refer to the right to vote for or against agenda items submitted to the general shareholders' meeting.
Voting rights are granted to anyone who holds even one share of stock, and with this voting right, one can vote against the dividend payment plan on the agenda of the general shareholders' meeting, demanding "more dividends."
However, if you buy preferred stock, you have to give up the shareholders' meeting.
--- p.26

By looking at the market capitalization rankings, you can see at a glance which industries dominate a country's industry and economy.
A look at the global market capitalization rankings reveals the world we live in today.
The most expensive company in the world is Apple.
Microsoft is in second place, Amazon is in third place, Alphabet is in fourth place, and Facebook is in fifth place (as of August 2020).
What they have in common is that they are online platform and related device companies.
As the Fourth Industrial Revolution, where 'data' is the golden egg, is taking root, the market capitalization of related companies is bound to be large.
Since stock prices fluctuate daily, the market capitalization also changes every time.
But in the short term it doesn't mean much.
However, if you look at it over a long period of time, say 10 or 20 years, you can see that the companies with the highest market capitalization influenced the economy of that country at that time.

--- p.31

The representative value investor is Warren Buffett.
As his famous saying goes, "If you can't hold a stock for 10 years, don't hold it for 10 minutes," his investment approach is to buy quality companies at a low price and then invest for the long term.
One example is Coca-Cola.
In 1988, when Coca-Cola was facing fierce competition from Pepsi-Cola and its stock price was falling, the price-to-earnings ratio (PER) had fallen to 15 times, Buffett purchased $1.2 billion worth of Coca-Cola stock.
This is because we were confident that people would continue to drink Coca-Cola, and we judged that the current stock price decline was excessive.
As Buffett had thought, Coca-Cola gradually expanded into the world, and by the 1990s, Coca-Cola's PER had risen to over 30 times.
Buffett still owns Coca-Cola stock.

--- p.39

If you sell stocks today, you can sell them at today's price, but the sale amount will not be deposited into your account until two business days later, after which you can withdraw the money.
Likewise, if you purchase stocks, the purchase price will be today's price, but the purchase amount will not be withdrawn from your account until two business days later.
It takes two days to change it into cash.
However, you can purchase other stocks with the same amount of money before the sale amount is actually deposited into your account.
For example, if you sell stocks, the amount you sold the stocks for will be added to the 'Deposit T+2' section of your account. This means that even if you cannot withdraw all of that money, you can use that money to purchase other stocks.
In simple terms, if you sold 50,000 won worth of B stock on Monday, you can buy 50,000 won worth of C stock on the same day (excluding taxes and public charges for convenience).
You just can't withdraw money.

--- p.51

Let's look at the trading method in chronological order.
When does the stock market open? The "regular market" is open from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM, but the stock market opens 30 minutes earlier.
From 8:30 to 9:00, the 'single price trading' method is applied, where stocks are traded at one price, and is divided into two trading methods depending on the time.
From 8:30 to 8:40, for 10 minutes, trading is conducted at the closing price of the previous trading day.
Since there is only one price, if the buy and sell orders are correct, the transaction is immediately concluded starting from the first order.
Separately, ‘single price trading’ is applied from 8:30 to 9:00.
This is a method of receiving buy and sell orders for 30 minutes and then executing a transaction at the opening price at 9 o'clock.
Buy and sell orders that can be traded are linked, and the price that can be traded the most among them becomes the opening price.
Between 8:30 and 8:40, you can trade by choosing either 'after-hours previous day's closing price trading' or 'opening price single price trading'.

--- p.60

There is 1.2 million won in deposits in the securities account, and stock A is trading at 11,000 won per share during the trading day.
I placed a buy order to buy 100 shares of stock A because I thought it would rise further.
But hey, they're saying they can't buy 100 shares because they don't have enough margin.
Margin refers to the deposit for settlement of stock transactions.
If you want to buy 100 shares of a stock that costs 11,000 won, you only need 1,010,000 won, and you still have 190,000 won left over. What on earth is missing?
If you encounter this situation, you should carefully check whether you have selected 'market order' on HTS.
For market orders, the margin is calculated based on the upper price limit for 'buy' orders, and the margin is calculated based on the lower price limit for 'sell' orders.
If Stock A closed at 10,000 won the previous day, this means that you need to have at least 1.3 million won in your securities account to purchase 100 shares.

--- p.69-70

There are probably many investors who want to invest in overseas stocks, but find it difficult to stay awake during the US market hours due to lack of sleep.
There is a way for these investors to invest in US stocks: by using reservation orders.
If you have already exchanged your money, you can just place a reservation and go to sleep.
When placing a pre-order, you must specify when you will purchase, which stocks you will purchase, and how many shares you will purchase at what price.
When an investor places a reservation order, the securities firm accepts the order without checking the customer's balance, etc.
Pre-orders placed in this manner are transmitted to the U.S. in the order they are received, starting 5 minutes after the local exchange opens. If the customer does not have enough funds, the transaction is rejected.
Just because a pre-order has been placed does not necessarily mean that the transaction will be completed, so investors must personally check that they have sufficient funds in their account.

--- p.81-82

How are stock prices determined? Imagine a company is founded, distributes shares to shareholders, and raises capital by collecting investment.
If you need 1 billion won in capital, you have to think about what price per share you should give the stock to the shareholders.
If it's a 5,000 won stock, you'll need to print 200,000 shares, and if it's a 10,000 won stock, you'll only need to print 100,000 shares.
This is called the ‘face value’ or ‘par value’.
The par value is the stock price on the day the company was first established.
The par value is divided into six types: 100 won, 200 won, 500 won, 1,000 won, 2,500 won, and 5,000 won per share. Since the par value is determined by the company, there is no relationship between the par value and the corporate value.
What changes depending on the face value is the number of shares.
In other words, the question is how many shares will be issued.
The principle is that if you multiply the par value by the total number of issued shares, you get the capital stock. If you lower the par value while keeping the capital stock the same, the total number of issued shares increases, and if you raise the par value, the total number of issued shares decreases.

--- p.92

For example, if the performance of American semiconductor companies is good, it is possible to infer that the performance of Korean semiconductor companies will also be good.
So, if the stock prices of U.S. semiconductor companies rise the night before, the stock prices of Korean semiconductor companies often rise along with them the next morning.
In this case, it is expressed as ‘industry sentiment has improved.’
On the other hand, even if the negative factors that were weighing down the stock price are resolved, you may feel good about the expectation that the stock price will rise.
A representative example is when stock prices rebounded after the US and China reached a phase one trade agreement.
This can be rephrased as 'KOSPI market sentiment has improved', as the overall market sentiment has improved.
However, it should be kept in mind that sentiment is merely a matter of 'feeling', so unless there is a strong foundation, there is a high possibility that the stock price will fall again.

--- p.104

A stock dividend is a free distribution of stocks to shareholders.
As new stocks are issued as in a paid-in capital increase, the capital increases, but since the stocks are issued for free, no funds actually come into the company.
How can capital increase when there's no cash coming in? To understand this, we need to understand the composition of our assets.
Assets are divided into total capital and total liabilities, and total capital (equity capital) is divided into capital received by issuing stocks to shareholders and surplus.
Surplus is composed of retained earnings and capital surplus.
Retained earnings refers to the money left over after paying dividends to shareholders after generating profits through business based on capital, while capital surplus refers to profits earned by issuing stocks or stock premiums.
The excess capital for issuing stocks arises during the paid-in capital increase process.
If the issue price per share of new stock exceeds the par value, the excess amount becomes the stock issuance premium.
If stocks with a par value of 5,000 won are issued at 7,000 won per share, the excess capital generated will be the difference of 2,000 won multiplied by the number of newly issued shares.

--- p.132

Let's assume that war broke out in Korea at any moment and the economy collapsed.
Then the won will no longer have value in the international financial market.
The ten thousand won I have could be a piece of waste paper that can't even buy a grain of rice.
But what if I had a dollar of gold at that moment? Couldn't I exchange it for dollars and buy something? Gold is accepted worldwide, and even if its value plummets, it still exists as a physical asset, making it easily convertible into other assets.
It is classified as a safe asset because it is strong and liquid when the economy is difficult.
Other safe assets include the dollar and bonds.
These are all assets that show relative strength when the macroeconomy is difficult.
In 2019, when the trade dispute between the US and China was reignited, gold prices continued to hit record highs.
Even in 2020, the following year, despite the financial market crash due to the novel coronavirus, gold prices continued to hit record highs.

--- p.162

The stock market also has a flex season.
This is the so-called 'bullish period' where stock prices rise as money continues to flow into the stock market.
How can we capture a bull market? Despite the media's constant trolling about poor economic indicators, interest rates are low, and money with nowhere to go is flowing into the stock market, where it can be easily converted into cash.
This is the beginning of a major upward trend.
Conversely, is there no way to predict a major downturn? The media is popping champagne for economic recovery, citing indicators like exports and employment as record highs.
However, if the stock price strangely falls, it can be interpreted as the beginning of a bear market.
By simply understanding the signals surrounding you when the stock market is entering a major uptrend or downtrend, you can predict when to buy or sell stocks.

--- p.196

So, is short-term investing, or short-term trading, the answer? But short-term trading is more difficult.
Success requires incredible precision in timing the highs and lows within a short period of time, a feat that even investment geniuses like Warren Buffett find difficult to achieve, let alone analysts.
There is no investment god who can predict the stock price for the next day.
That's why experts recommend long-term investments that have a higher success rate than short-term investments that try to match daily volatility.
In addition, in the case of short-term investments, it is important to consider that various fees are charged each time a trade is made, which reduces the rate of return.
This is because if you trade dozens of times a day, the returns you earn from stocks and the commissions you incur are likely to be similar.
If you make a profit, that's great, but if you suffer a loss, the loss will snowball.

--- p.234

The biggest source of energy during the 'stay-at-home' life was non-contact hobbies such as Netflix (US), NCSoft, and Nintendo (Japan).
These content stocks have benefited as people spend more time at home watching movies or playing games instead of traveling or going out.
Among game stocks, NCSoft, Netmarble, Double Games, Neowiz, and Com2uS benefited, and overseas, Blizzard (USA), EA (USA), and Nexon (Japan) also received attention.
As the number of people reading webtoons increased, the stock price of Kidari Studio, a webtoon production company, also rose.
Kakao also saw its stock price soar as it emerged in the fintech business, thanks to its popular messenger KakaoTalk.
The reason why online life was so smooth was because of the robust internet environment.
This is also why Internet infrastructure is considered a beneficiary of the contactless era.
Additionally, 5G equipment and component manufacturer KMW is expected to expand its investment in 5G infrastructure in the future.
In the United States, Equinix, a data center REIT, has gained popularity, and American Tower, a cell tower REIT, has also been in the spotlight.

--- p.285