On October 19, 1987 the stock market plunged 508 points, or 22 percent of the total market value. It was the worst crash, since 1927 which signaled the Great Depression. What brought about this crash, why such a drop in such a little time?One major reason for the crash was fear. Fear of a correction. Fear of a drop. Fear of being to late to get out. The 1980s had brought large stock increases, people had been making fortunes on the huge surges in the stock market. People began to fear that the market wouldn't be able to go up forever, and eventually it would fall, and create what is called a correction. The fear began to accumulate around October 15th, when The Wall Street Journal published an article entitled, "Stocks May Face More than a Correction."The morning of 1987, began with a quick loss of around 150 points. Although, the market did rebound a little before noon, the landslide had begun, and the market was losing too fast to hold back. Many of the specialists, whose job it is to negotiate the trades between sellers and buyers, were going out of business, because the rules state that they must purchase stocks that cannot be sold. In the end, the market plunged, and after the closing bell rang in the NYSE, there was silence between the brokers. People were speechless, many broke.

After you decide what company to invest in, you need to find a broker. A broker is the only person that can make an order to buy or sell stocks. There are two types of brokers that every brokerage firm has. The first type of broker is a stockbroker, who researches investments, helps make goals, and give advice on investing. Discount brokers on the other hand, do not offer advice, and they do no research. They just are middle men in the transactions. When you give a stockbroker your order, they relay the order to the floorbrokers. The floorbrokers do all the actual buying and selling, and they hold a seat on the exchange.

The most basic order is the market order, where you just ask the broker to buy or sell your stocks at the best price he can get his hands on. Another type of order which takes more research and predicting on your part is a limit order. In a limit order, you tell the broker to trade only when the stock is at a certain price or better. A stop order is an order which can save you from extreme loss. In a stop order, you tell the broker to sell your shares if the stock drops too low, and you tell him the price not to let it drop below.
Why does the stock market go up and down? Theses fluctuations occur partly because companies make money, or lose money, but it is much more involved than that. A stock is only worth what someone will pay for it. Usually, if a company makes a lot of money, its value rises, because people are willing to pay more for a company's stock if the company is doing well. There are many other factors that affect the value of stocks. One example is interest rates, or the amount of money you have to pay a bank to loan money, or how much it has to pay you to keep your money in their bank. If interest rates are high, stock prices generally go down, because if people can make a decent amount of money, by keeping their money in banks, or buying bonds, they feel like they should not take the risk in the stock market.
A large number of trading questions often revolve around trading the first 30 minutes of the day. This only stands to reason as the opening half-hour usually provides plenty of volatility. The large amount of volume that comes during this time period means that a trader must be very organized and have his system functioning properly. This time period often provides major moves for many stocks. Depending on the day, the majority of the move and volume may come to the stock during this opening half-hour.
The open can be very profitable if played correctly. This is where guerrilla tactics and other strategies that utilize gaps in the opening of stocks come into play. A few things need to be understood first. The open has very little to do with the rest of the day. Overnight orders are being filled, market makers are positioning to capitalize on the morning, and trading during this time can be very whippy. It is usually a riskier time to enter longer-term positions. So the first rule is to stick to strategies that are designed for the opening such as the gap strategies mentioned earlier.
One tip to help you follow multiple stocks is to have set up on your page an area with several five- or two- minute charts. Or you could also set up an opening page that consists largely of five- or two-minute charts. These charts are very helpful in determining visually, at a glance, how all the stocks in which you have an interest are acting. However, when it comes right down to it, you will still have to pick your favorites to watch during the opening minutes. If you ever had the feeling of constantly flipping from one stock to the next and always being behind the play and never making a good entry, this may be your problem. You will be much better off if you pick a few