Using Economic Indicators to Improve Investment Analysis
Chapter One
Cycles, Markets,
and Participants
Understanding the importance of economic indicators to the U.S. economy
requires familiarity with the underlying cycles, markets, and participants
in those markets-concepts typically included in an introductory macroeconomics
course. This chapter briefly describes three kinds of cycles, three distinct
markets, and several types of participants, including their sentiments
and their actions. The intent here is to simplify a complex subject and relate
theoretical constructs to real world economics and finance.
To make explanations clearer-and to avoid the famous economic
apology, "all other factors held constant"-the following definitions focus
on one factor at a time. Always remember the difference between the real
world, where various effects get tangled together, and the laboratory, where
we can isolate and dissect the individual parts. The key points to each
are summarized so that yo ... read full excerpt from Using Economic Indicators to Improve Investment Analysis ebook
