Curriculum How Financial Markets Work: Behind the Scenes
How Financial Markets Work: Behind the Scenes
What actually happens when shares are traded - exchanges, bids and asks, order types, short selling, options, derivatives, hedge funds, ratings and circuit breakers.
- What a Stock Exchange Actually Does How stock exchanges bring buyers and sellers together, set rules, and provide the liquidity and price information that investors rely on. 📄 Read-aloud
- Bid, Ask and Market Makers What the bid and ask prices mean, why the gap between them is a hidden cost of trading, and how market makers keep markets running. 📄 Read-aloud
- Market Orders and Limit Orders The difference between orders that trade immediately at the best available price and orders that trade only at a price you choose, and when to use each. 📄 Read-aloud
- Short Selling How investors can profit from falling prices by borrowing and selling shares, the risks involved, and why short sellers are both criticised and valued. 📄 Read-aloud
- Options, Explained Simply What call and put options are, how they can be used to protect investments or to speculate, and why most buyers of short-term options lose money. 📄 Read-aloud
- Derivatives: Contracts on Other Assets What derivatives are, how futures, options and swaps let businesses manage risk, and why derivatives also played a role in financial crises. 📄 Read-aloud
- How Financial Markets Work: Checkpoint 1 Quick checkpoint - five questions on exchanges, spreads, order types, short selling and options. 5 questions
- Hedge Funds and Private Equity How hedge funds and private equity firms invest, how they are paid, and the debates over their returns and influence. 📄 Read-aloud
- How Credit Ratings Work What credit rating agencies do, what letter grades like AAA and BBB mean, and why ratings matter for governments, companies and investors. 📄 Read-aloud
- High-Frequency Trading How computer algorithms trade shares in millionths of a second, the arms race for speed, and the debate over whether it helps or harms markets. 📄 Read-aloud
- Can You Beat the Market? The Efficient Market Hypothesis The idea that share prices already reflect available information, the evidence for and against it, and what it means for ordinary investors. 📄 Read-aloud
- Circuit Breakers and Market Crashes How stock exchanges pause trading during sharp falls to prevent panic, where the idea came from, and how often circuit breakers have been triggered. 📄 Read-aloud
- India's Retail Investor Boom and the F&O Warning How the number of Indian retail investors exploded, why derivatives trading drew millions of individuals, and what SEBI found about their losses. 📄 Read-aloud
- How Stock Indices Like the Sensex and Nifty Are Built What a stock market index measures, how the Sensex and Nifty 50 choose and weight their companies, and why index design matters for investors. 📄 Read-aloud