Stock Market Sectors Classification
There are many ways in which stocks can be classified. One of the most preferred ones is by the sector in which the particular business that issues the stocks falls. This classification, which includes the grouping together of companies from the same sector, is done for the purposes of facilitating comparisons between the companies' stocks.
However, many classifications by sectors can be found. One of them divides the market into eleven sectors, where two of them are referred to as defensive, whereas the other nine are referred to as cyclical.
Let's now turn our attention to these two classifications and examine them at a closer look.
Cyclical Stocks
Stocks from the cyclical classification tend to be sensitive to the market conditions, especially to its cycles, as their name implies. The good news is that if one sector is down, another sector may experience an upward trend.
This classification includes nine of the sectors that fall in the sector division. They are as follows:
1.Capital Goods
2.Energy
3.Technology
4.Health care
5.Communications
6.Transportation
7.Basic materials
8.Consumer cyclical
9.Financial
As it can be seen from the list above, investors will not find any difficulty in recognizing whether a particular business belongs to one cyclical sector or another.
Defensive Stocks
This classification includes two of the sectors that fall in the sector division. They are as follows:
1.Utilities
2.Consumer staples
These sectors are less susceptible to market cycles since no matter what the market conditions are people will not stop consume food or electricity. Stocks from these sectors are used as a balancing and protection mechanism by many investors in their portfolios in case the market starts to go down.
However, the advantage of defensive stocks can be their drawback as well. This is so, since no matter what the conditions of the market are people will probably not start to consume more energy or food, so when the market is up, the prices of defensive stocks may not go up as well.
Stock Sectors Purpose
The main purpose of stocks sectors is to facilitate investors' comparison of different stocks. Moreover, comparison of stocks within a particular sector can be very useful if you want to see how your sectors are performing relative to stocks within the same sector.
However, try to use the classifications of various sources, since different sources use different set of sectors.
Final Piece of Advice
Use stock sectors to make effective and reliable comparisons between your stocks and the other from the same sector. This is recommended in order to see whether there are any drastic differences in the performance and if there are such to regulate the disparities.
For knowledge we can highly recommend you subscribe to the The Wall Street Journal.
http://www.stock-market-investors.com/stock-investing-basics/stock-market-sectors-classification.html
Keep INVESTING Simple and Safe (KISS) ****Investment Philosophy, Strategy and various Valuation Methods**** The same forces that bring risk into investing in the stock market also make possible the large gains many investors enjoy. It’s true that the fluctuations in the market make for losses as well as gains but if you have a proven strategy and stick with it over the long term you will be a winner!****Warren Buffett: Rule No. 1 - Never lose money. Rule No. 2 - Never forget Rule No. 1.
Monday 14 September 2009
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