Share facts - always being informed

Information is essential for the daily business of the stock exchange. Those who quickly have access to the latest developments from the global financial markets have decisive advantages over their competitors. It was not without reason that a telegraph office was already located in the middle of the old Frankfurt Stock Exchange in the middle of the 19th century. Fast, bundled information is also of great importance for today's shareholders. Even just in terms of deciding which company or market you want to invest in. 

The online portal of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange: the first point of contact for information about your shares

The online portal of Deutsche Börse, boerse-frankfurt.de, is particularly recommended for information on shares and stock corporations. 

The website offers you real-time price data from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. In addition, you will always see the current offers to buy and sell with the available quantities of all securities traded there. 

If you want to see the price development over a certain period of time, charts provide a quick, visual overview in the form of a curve. 

The price data becomes clearer with news of all kinds.

If you would like to deal more intensively with an individual company, you can also find important news from the companies themselves on boerse-frankfurt.de. Investors have the right to be informed about course and development of your shares. Therefore public limited companies are subject to legally prescribed publication obligations. This includes the publication of balance sheets, profit and loss accounts, ad-hoc announcements, as well as transactions of the respective board members and supervisory board members with the shares of their own company (so-called insider dealings, also known as director's dealings). 

In addition to these mandatory disclosures, the portal offers a range of interesting information about the company, such as the amount of dividend payments in recent years, analyses and evaluations by professional analysts. 

With all this information, you can evaluate companies and their shares and better assess the opportunities and risks of a share. 

For information on the stock and financial markets, you should consult several sources

But it is not just bare figures that determine the rise and fall of stock prices; external influences that at first glance may have nothing to do with your securities also play a role. Share prices are the result of the expectations of everyone involved.

Pursuing markets and politics

Important for the formation of an own market opinion are events from politics, society and (world) economy which could potentially affect the financial markets. Current examples are the UK's withdrawal from the EU or the civil war in Syria. 

Technical literature, daily newspapers, financial journals and their websites are also suitable for explaining the interplay between the capital market, business and politics. They offer well-researched background information and analyses on the capital market, the economy as a whole and events in politics and society.

Internet forums, social trading sites and apps

Active investors have their own networks on the Internet, where they discuss the potential development of individual companies. Internet forums such as wallstreet-online, the forum of Ariva, aktienboard.com, aktiencheck.de or wertpapier-forum.de, for example, also give you the opportunity to benefit from knowledge and a large investor community. Please note, however, that the contributions have not been reviewed by any party and that the opinion of many can lead to an ill-considered herd instinct. In any case, such forums offer a very good opportunity to ask the community if something is unclear to you on the stock market. You will usually get an answer. 

Social trading sites are a new offering that has quickly become very popular with the investor community. On platforms like wikifolio.com, ayondo or easyFolio you can follow the trading strategies of traders, choose successful ones and implement them even with small amounts. Some of the strategies are also issued in the form of certificates in which you can invest directly.

Investment Clubs

Investment clubs are associations of private investors who pursue a common investment strategy. They offer bundled knowledge and experience and usually have a clearly defined investment strategy. The members of such investment communities meet regularly, familiarise themselves with the stock market world among like-minded people and often also hold a joint portfolio. There are approximately 7,000 of these associations in Germany. The Deutsche Schutzgemeinschaft für Wertpapierbesitz arranges contacts on request. 

The Capital Markets Academy of Deutsche Börse

A further source of knowledge for beginners and more experienced investors is provided by the training courses and seminars offered by Deutsche Börse's Capital Markets Academy. In informative evening seminars, private investors gain valuable knowledge about the stock exchange, taught by renowned professionals with many years of stock market experience. 

• Chapter 6: The Stock Exchanges of Deutsche Boerse