Exercise 8. Make up dialogues of your own

1. You employ a broker to commit business transactions for you.

2. Your firm doesn't meet either NYSE or AMEX requirements so you come into contact with one of the OTC brokers to discuss the possibilities of cooperation.

3. Your computer is out of order. Contact your broker and discuss the situation.

Exercise 9. Transform the following sentences according to the model

Model: - We can do it.

- It can be done.

 

1. They must introduce telecommunication on the OTC market.

2. We can't trade unlisted securities.

3. We should buy and sell unlisted stocks and bonds by phone.

4. I have to pay special attention to the major security markets of the world.

5. They ought to close trading at the Tokyo exchange.

6. We must replace face to face buying and selling of securities by telecommunication.

7. We must watch the foreign exchange closely.

8. We should keep customers up to date on the latest prices.

9. We have to look through the NASDAQ national market quotations in the daily stock sections of national newspapers.

10. I should have my stock listed on regional and national exchanges.

Exercise 10. Translate into English

 

1. Ценные бумаги продаются на первичных и вторичных рынках ценных бумаг. 2. Если компания хочет выпустить новые акции, она проводит переговоры с инвестиционным банком или поручителем. 3. Поручитель покупает ценные бумаги компании и перепродает их на вторичном рынке индивидуальным инвес­торам. 4. Фондовые биржи делают процесс продажи и покупки ценных бумаг проще. 5. Фондовая биржа состоит из инвесторов, брокеров и посредников, которые занимаются покупкой и продажей ценных бумаг. 6. Операции с ценными бумагами проводятся биржевыми брокерами. 7. Биржевые брокеры получают вознаграждение. 8. Биржевые брокеры действуют по поручению клиентов. 9. Чтобы вести дела на бирже, брокер должен купить место. 10. Члены биржи представляют биржевых брокеров. 11. Крупнейшая и наиболее известная биржа в США - Нью-йоркская фондовая биржа ("Большое табло"). 12. Чтобы быть зарегистрированной на бирже, компания должна соответствовать ряду требований. 13. Американская фондовая биржа имеет около 500 полных членов и около 400 ассоциированных членов. 14. Рынок без посредников торгует незарегистрированными ценными бумагами. 15. Цены на ценные бумаги устанавливаются спросом и предложением. 16. Опционы продаются на главных фондовых биржах, а также на Бирже опционов в Чикаго.

Exercise 11. Read the text

TRADING STOCKS

Trading stock begins with an investor placing an order that is informing the stockbroker as to what stock and how much he wants the broker to buy or sell. An order to buy or sell stock at the best possible price at the present time is called a market order. The broker conveys the order to an exchange member on the trading floor, who attempts to get a better price for the buyer by offering a little less. For example, the broker might offer 47 1/8 ($47.12.5) for the stock with a current price of 47 1/4 and see if someone will sell at this price. If the investor were selling, the broker would attempt to get a slightly higher price by offer say, 47 3/8.

 

The final sale will then be electronically relayed to the bro­ker who placed the order. The investor might also place a limit order which specifies the highest or lowest price at which the broker may buy or sell. If the investor can't be accommodated immediately, the broker places the order in a sales book and then tries again in order of priority. If an investor wants to keep the order on the books he can issue an open order which instructs the broker to leave the order on the books until it is executed or canceled.

 

Sometimes the investor might give a discretionary order which allows the broker to exercise judgment in making money. The investor leaves it up to the broker to decide when and at what price to buy or sell.

 

An odd lot is any number of shares less than 100. One hun­dred shares comprises a round lot. Brokers usually trade shares in lots, odd lots being combined with a series of other small orders to form a round lot. A purchase of 10,000 shares is some­times called a block sale. In addition to the price of the stock, the investor pays the broker a commission for buying or selling the securities.

 

Sometimes investors pay less than the full amount when they buy stock. This is called margin trading. The FRS determines the minimum margin required. In recent years the stock margin has been approximately 50 percent. Fearing that the investor might sell the stock and abscond with the funds, the broker keeps stock certificates of margin accounts at the brokerage as collat­eral. If the stocks were to plummet, the broker would call the investor and request that he put up more money or have the stock sold.

 

Active buyers of stock are called bulls. They believe that the prices of stocks are going to rise. During the mid 1980s, the US witnessed a very long bull market. At the 1987 crash even bulls became bears. A bear is an investor who makes a profit when the prices are going to fall. Selling short is a high risk strategy which bears use in order to do that. They sell borrowed stock in the hope of later buying it on the open market at a lower price.

 

Options are contracts that allow an investor to either buy or sell a security at a predetermined price within a certain time. Depending on the investor's expectations, he may buy a put option or a call option. A put option grants the owner the right to sell a security. Believing that the price of certain shares will drop over some period of time an investor might buy an option and benefit from selling the shares at the option price to the person who sold the options. A call option grants its owner the right to buy a certain amount of stock at a predetermined price within a fixed period of time.

America's Financial Markets / The Economist, 2000. November 24.

 

Words and expressions

to place	размещать
to convey	передавать (сообщение, информацию)
floor	пол, площадка
to attempt	пытаться
current	текущая, существующая
slightly	немного, слегка
to relay	передавать, сообщать
to accommodate	здесь: оказывать услугу
to execute	выполнять
priority	приоритет, первенство
order of priority	в порядке очереди
to cancel	отозвать; отменить
discretionary	представленный на усмотрение, дискреционный
judgment	суждение, оценка, суд
odd	неполный, нечетный
round	круглый, полный
commission	комиссионный
to fear	опасаться, бояться
to abscond	сбежать с деньгами
to plummet	здесь: резко падать в цене
bull	бык
bear	медведь
short	короткий, кратковременный
to sell short	продать на срок без покрытия
predetermined	заранее установленный
put option	опцион продавца
call option	опцион покупателя
to grant	гарантировать
to drop	падать