不可不知的“股市行情”：“熊市”和“牛市”
我們在新聞報道中都聽說過股市的“熊市”和“牛市”，也知道股票投資是靠差價來賺錢的。下面這段對話將給您簡單又全面地介紹一下股市。
Julia: Would you tell me something about stock? Mike: Sure, what do you want me to start with? Julia: Uhh, you can start with the explanation of some terms like "a bull " and "a bear ". Mike: OK. A bull is a situation in which share prices are rising. Julia: What about a bear, then? Mike: A bear is a situation in which share prices keep falling. Julia: Oh, I see. But why the prices get rising or falling? Mike: If there are more buyers, the price will rise. Otherwise, the price will be lower and lower. Julia: How can we make money in the stock market? Mike: If you believe the market will go up, you can buy in or hang on. If it turns out to be true, you can make your profit. Julia: I heard that some people can earn money out of a bear market. How do they win in such a situation? Mike: If you believe the market will fall down, you can sell out your shares and then buy back at a lower price. The price difference is your profit. Julia: It sounds easy to make money from stock investment. Mike: Not at all. When you really invest in stock market, you'll get involved into the whole world. Julia: What do you mean by that? Mike: To decide which share you'll buy in is quite hard sometimes. You have to consider the market tendency; the growth of the company and you'd better know something about technical analysis. Julia: So boring it is. I'd better invest in some fixed interest fields. Mike: Certainly you can. You won't suffer from the risks. But your wallet will suffer. Julia: What should I do? Mike: If you really want to invest in stock, perhaps you should find a broker.
Notes：
1. 對話中，Mike給Julia講了一些關於股票和股票市場的知識，我們來從頭看一看。首先是“牛市”和“熊市”這兩個概念，“牛市”就是“a bull market”，bull是“公牛”的意思。“牛市”就是指“股價上漲的股市”。 “熊市”，a bear market，就是指“股價不斷下跌的股市”。
2. start with sth 這個詞組表示“以某件事物作爲開始”，比如說，You can start with your self-introduction，你可以從自我介紹開始。同時，to start with還可以表示“第一，首先”，比如說，To start with we haven't got enough money, and secondly we're too busy. 一來是我們的錢不夠，二來我們沒有時間。
3. 另外，to start with還有“起初，開始”的意思，比如說，The company had only 10,000 dollars to start with. 這家公司最初的投資只有1萬美元。關於start 還有一個在口語中很常用的表達方式，就是start something，表示“惹事，熱麻煩，闖禍”，比如說，You shouldn't have spoken to him like that - you've really started something now. 你真不應該和他那樣說話，這下你可闖禍了。
4. 那麼股價爲什麼會有漲有跌呢?股票價格上漲，share prices are rising. 那麼股票價格下跌呢，share prices keep falling。Mike解釋說，如果買的人多了，這支股票的價格就會上漲，否則，股價就會越來越低。Julia又問，怎麼樣能在股市上賺錢呢?這是所有在股市投資的人都關心的問題了。
5. Mike說If you believe the market will go up, you can buy in or hang on. If it turns out to be true, you can make your profit. 如果你相信股價會上漲，你可以買進或者持股不動，如果股價真的上漲了，這時候再把手裏的股票賣掉，就可以賺錢了。Hang on這個詞組可以表示“緊握着”， 比如說，We should hang on to the shares until their prices are higher. 在股票價格升高之前，我們應當盡力保住這些股票。再舉一個例子，Hang on to the strap. The bus is starting. 抓住皮帶，汽車要開動了。同時hang on也是一種電話用語，意思是“別掛斷”， 比如說，Hang on a minute; I'm coming. 請稍等一下，我馬上就來。make a profit on something表示“在……獲利”，跟make a fortune on something這個詞組差不多。
6. Julia還聽說有些人在熊市也能獲利，他們是怎麼做的呢?Mike解釋說，如果你認爲股市會下跌，你賣出股票，然後再以較低的價格買回，其中的差價就是你的利潤。Price difference就是指“差價”。這應該很好理解吧。所以Julia覺得在股市賺錢好像很容易。Make money from something這個詞組就表示“從……賺錢”，比如說，He made some money from selling newspaper. 他賣報紙賺了一些錢。
7. Mike說在股市上賺錢絕沒有聽起來那麼容易。因爲如果你在股市投了資，你也就捲入了整個世界。爲什麼會這麼說呢?What do you mean by that? 也就是What do you mean by saying that? 因爲要決定買哪一隻股票有時相當困難，你要考慮市場的走勢，公司的發展，而且最好還要懂一些技術分析。不是光憑運氣就可以的。
8. Julia聽了這些就覺得很無聊了，因爲她對這些一竅不通，所以她打算搞一些固定利率方面的投資吧，風險會小一點。不過這樣的話，Julia錢包就要受苦了，因爲這些固定利率方面的投資回報都很少，不像在股市上那樣利潤豐厚。所以，在賺更多的錢的同時，也要承受更大的風險。Mike建議Julia如果真的想在股市投資的話，就去找一個經紀人，幫助她投資。股票經紀人就是broker。
