Welcome to Media Co-op Investor!
Stock markets are the locations of some of the highest concentrations of capital in the world. Trillions of dollars pass through them every day, switching hands, making people rich, and financing companies large and small.
Though these stock market have become entangled and intertwined in almost every financial aspect of our lives - our access to debt, our pensions, our ability to access financial services, the policy options which our governments have at their disposal - understanding by the public of how the markets work, what they do and, ultimately how ridiculous the whole system is, is generally poor.
What is the stock market? How does it work? Why is it so prevalent? And who's benefiting from it? What is a price to earnings ratio and what does a stock 'point' represent? These are the kinds of questions the Toronto Media Co-op aims to investigate for our readers.
Every two weeks we'll examine an element of the stock market that you may have heard about but may not understand. We'll also focus on some key Canadian companies. More importantly, we're using theoretical dollars to fake-invest in companies and track why their price goes up and down.
Our Media Co-op Investor Series focuses entirely on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), and, more specifically, the index known as the Standard and Poor Toronto Stock Exchange 60 or S/P TSX 60.
The TSX is made up of over 3800 companies, 78% of its market value is made up of three 'industry groups': finance, energy and mining. The S/P TSX 60 is an 'index' (a sub-exchange, if you will) investors can invest in. It is made up of the 60 largest companies in the TSX.
These are Canada's biggest power brokers; the gears that turn the wheels of Canadian capitalism. Some of these companies you recognize instantly like Scotiabank, Tim Hortons, Huskey and Potash Corporation. Others like Cenovus, Saputo, and the hilarilously named financial group Power Corporation of Canada, may be unknown to you.
But not anymore.
The Toronto Media Co-op is now keeping a watchful eye. We've theoretically-invested in the grand-daddies of the TSX; the Barrick Gold's, the Goldcorp's, Talisman's, Suncor's, Magna's, Thompson-Reuters', CIBC's. We're watching their every move, digging up their dirt and naming the names of every major Consumer, Energy, FInancial, Industrial and Mining companies in the S/P TSX 60.
Follow the money and stay tuned.
