Anyone who considers the stock exchange to be an event in a vacuum, without reference to reality, is wrong. Shares represent shares in companies. And companies do business. If these businesses are doing well, as is currently the case with most listed companies, and the prospects for the future are positive, shares in the companies are in demand, demand increases and so do the prices of the shares. Not every day, but the bottom line is. Conversely, there are also companies that have business difficulties whose products do not sell well. The demand to become a co-owner of such a company is correspondingly low. The share price is developing weakly. It is usually not clear whether a company will develop well or badly in the future.Every stock purchase by an optimist is always offset by a stock sale by a pessimist. In this struggle, share prices are formed.
Daniel Mohr
Editor in the economy of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
Follow I follow
In the past few decades, most companies in most countries have done well. The gross domestic product in Germany has increased every year since the Second World War, with very few exceptions. Correspondingly, companies have also recorded increasing sales and profits, and the Dax, the benchmark for the development of share prices, has risen from its 1000 points in 1988 to more than 16,000 points in most years. Can a record run like the one seen on the American stock exchanges go on forever? Sure, of course. As long as there is optimism that companies are becoming more and more productive, innovative and thus more successful, their share prices will also rise. Not every day, but in the medium term. The nice thing about it is:It is not just the rich who have to benefit from this. Anyone can participate in companies with shares for just a few euros.