all I could find was daily data back to 2006 after searching for quite a while, I doubt a simple search is going to find it for me

SIGH!!

http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar...ile/spearn.htm

I used: historical sp 500 with dividends
as my search string, FOURTH link down...come on...tell me that wasn't simple?

I have a technical question about exactly where the shares come from for short selling. I get the rough idea of shorting, just not the specifics of the transactions.

Person A owns 100 shares of stock x.
Person B wants to short stock x. The stock is currently at $1.00/share.
Person B "borrows" and sells 100 shares of stock to Person C.

Does Person C pay Person B $100? Does Person B have to pay person A for the shares? Do they simply enter a contract where Person B pays Person A now, and then must return the shares in several days/weeks, and then get $ back for them?

Let's say I'm person A. Where do I go if I want to find such contracts, where I can loan stock to people for shorting? What types of people do this, and for what purpose?

Finally, let's say the company issues a dividend during the time the stock is shorted. Who gets the dividend? Person A, who is "loaning" the stock, or Person C, who "bought" the stock from Person B? Since Person B owns an essentially negative amount of shares, is he somehow liable for some sort of negative dividend?

Thanks.

ty, but I was looking for daily data

In legal short sales any stock that the broker is holding for someone else that is on margin are available for shorting. When you're short a stock, you receive all proceeds of a sale as if you had owned the stock originally. Your account will show up as having a negative value for the amount of shares you shorted.

When a dividend is paid the current debtor (the short seller) must pay the dividend out of cash in their account.

yeah i dont understand how getting dividends from your stocks work.
also, i think i may have had something to do with the creation of this thread

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5d5aa24e-2...nclick_check=1

Deece read.

I just bought my first stock. Wish me luck!

Is there a non leveraged equivalent of SRS? Something that would be suitable for holding for a long period of time that plays the short side of commercial real estate?

Personally I like VGPMX and have a big portion of my money in that fund, but I don't need it for 5+ years and I'm going to keep it there for a long period of time. Recommend you do your due diligence and read the prospectus before deciding if that's appropriate for you, but I think it makes a lot of sense.

Edit: If you're strictly interested in tracking the S&P Index, then I think VFINX is the fund for you.

You might want to search the the forums at elitetrader and trade2win.

From what I hear the interviews for trading slots are have alot of math/brain teaser type questions. I've also hear that sometimes they actually use card games in interviews. Be careful though, I think I remember Nassim Taleb (Black Swan) saying that when people said they played chess, he'd have some Russian math/chess whiz come into the interview and play them (so if you tell them I'm a winner at 400NL HU have 400 in your pocket because you never know ).

Quick answer is: no. A good, high interest online savings account like ING direct is going to be your best bet.

Complex answer is: sort of. You can buy bonds that get nearly 3% with a low level of risk, and these can be sold after buying. The problem is that if interest rates go way up, the value of the bond diminishes (although it will eventually be worth face value). There are also instruments like MUNI bonds that can fit your description.

Definitely. There are numerous sites: ETRADE, Scottrade, Charles Schwab, etc. It's quick and easy--setup is about as hard as you ING account was, and they can transfer money from your ING account directly into the brokerage account. I use Schwab--higher fees per trade but a lot less BS (like no maintenance fees, e-statement fees, inactivity fees, etc) that some of the low cost per trade palces hit you with.

Index funds are easy. Most people invest through ETFs (exchange traded funds)--there are tons, you buy them on the NYSE through your brokerage account just like stocks, and the fee structure is way more favorable than mutual funds. You can also invest in exotic things much more easily and cheaply than you would otherwise--buying other currencies, precious metals, emerging market telecom companies, etc, can be done very easily. I myself am invested pretty heavily in emerging market ETFs because the dollar is strong and those markets have been hit hard, making them a pretty good value.

Many young people are more than 80% invested in stocks (although many of us have cash, precious metals, real estate, etc as well). They tend to give superior returns over long time horizons.

You should probably read a bit about investing and stuff before jumping in headfirst. But I would definitely get an account going an put a few grand in it to get started.

This might be a retarded question, but whatever, that's what this thread is for

For a Norwegian trading noob living in Australia, but moving to the US or Canada (and probably living in Canada for many years ) after Christmas: should I bother trying to learn the Aussie markets or should I just get started with the US straight away? The problem is obviously the time zone differences and the fact that I'm not planning on working or living in Australia after 2009. Seems kinda useless to spend months studying a market I probably won't be trading in anyway, but maybe I should see it as an opportunity to get a wider range of knowledge? I mean, I want to know as much as possible about everything, but I wouldn't want to learn at the cost of missing out on something that would be more applicable to what I hope to be working with later. On the other hand, with the time zone difference I might find it hard to be able to sit down and watch price action and follow the daily movements of the US market. I am very much in the learning phase, and probably won't be trading with real money any time soon, but am putting in a lot of time and am quite eager to get started. Opinions, anyone?

I don't know what your schedule is, but I trade the morning and usually set up a mechanical trade for the afternoon, so I trade from 11pm-2:30am usually. Get involved in the US markets if thats your long term goal for sure, if you're really itchy about the time zone, try the asian markets, but they're crazy and you might not learn all that much

Thanks, that makes sense. The US market seems like the way to go, and I guess I can usually catch a fair bit of the morning trading. Cheers.