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As our world becomes more and more fast-paced, it is very important to educate those who are interested in the financial industry in order to help them transition smoothly into it.
Being a student from a developing country who moved to the UK to study, I know quite well how challenging it can be to make the first step into this industry. When you first attend university, you get busy with all the university life— getting to know new people, getting into societies, maybe playing sports— and are left with only a small amount of time to get yourself prepared for spring weeks and summer internships. Therefore, I think it is important to help the younger generation make that first step earlier during their secondary school education.
This is the story of MarketsView; this is why it was founded, and this is its mission and purpose.
The original idea was to help younger students who were in their last years of school or college make that first step. The key idea to remember is that we provide easy-to-understand financial reports that help them understand basic but useful concepts about stock markets and the industry as a whole. We concentrate on equities, but touch upon commodities and currencies as well, since they are very important instruments on the market, and if you invest abroad, you have to keep currency risks in mind.
Commodities are also significant, as we have seen how low and even negative oil prices can affect the economy and stock prices during the pandemic.
Another important thing we do is help students develop their logical and critical thinking skills. By following the analysis in our reports, readers can develop their own opinion on different matters and develop the ability to construct logical trains of thought. I believe that it is crucial for students to have, at least, a basic idea of how stock markets work when they get into their first year of university. Firstly, this will help them secure spring weeks and summer internships through more enhanced analytical skills and critical thinking, helping them boost their careers. Secondly, developing a thinking process is as important as being able to think through problems critically and logically, as this allows us to come up with the best solution. Last but not least, this is really helpful for students to gain exposure to the industry before they start attending university. By understanding stock movements, students may be able to find more purpose in their university studies, as they will understand where they can apply the knowledge and skills taught at university.
This was quite a long introduction, but the ultimate aim of this article is to provide you with my view on markets and how MarketsView’s mission incorporates this view.
Considering what has been happening on the market lately, we can see a lot of incidents related to short-term speculations. Some good examples are the incidents that occurred at GameStop, AMC and silver. We’ve been seeing traders coming together (through Reddit, for example), causing stock prices to change dramatically, but after that, they come back to their fundamental long-term values and trends. This is what I believe in.
Whatever shocks happen on the market will eventually return to its long-term trend.
Even looking at large shocks, such as the breakout of the pandemic in March 2020, we see that the fall in the stock markets were dramatic, but the recovery was also rapid. While the economy is still quite close to the trough of its cycle, stock markets faced a rapid V-shaped recovery, and are beating their all-time highs— the markets thus went back to their long term growth trend. Another example is the S&P500 index, which is beating its all-time highs and is continuing to grow following its long-term trend from approximately 1990.
Let’s now talk a bit more about the long term approach.
As I’ve previously mentioned, I believe in long-term investing, and I have a long-term view of the market. Upon looking at the fundamentals of stocks, we just need to be patient enough to sell the stock when its fundamental values start showing that it is overvalued. You don’t need to be a guru with this approach, but rather, have a good understanding of the economy’s health and be able to determine whether the stock is over or undervalued.
Fundamental metrics allow us to identify undervalued stocks quite easily, and although we can’t predict how high the price will get, what we can do is see when the market values the stock just right and sell it then, thus gaining profit from it.
What we do at MarketsView integrates this long-term fundamental approach. We believe in the long-term fundamental development of individuals. If you start early, you have a better chance of succeeding, as it is a well-known fact that learning abilities are stronger at a younger age. We believe that when students dive into the industry while being at school, they start seeing their purpose in education, and thus they understand where they want to get. Many students just study because society says they should. This is just something they are forced to do, but we show them that the skills and knowledge they get will be useful to them in their future career.
The last part of this article will be about why I founded MarketsView, what motivates me, and what we have to offer.
I am a second-year university student at the moment, and the idea of MarketsView came to me during the summer after my first year. I reflected on my first year and how difficult it was for me to cope with studies, live an active university life and also apply for the spring weeks to get into the industry. My financial knowledge was also quite low, and all I had was passion and desire. I was lucky to get accepted onto a spring insight programme, but decided that others might need help with that. I wanted to build an organisation that would help young students gain an understanding of the stock markets and financial industry as a whole. Finding like-minded individuals wasn’t easy, but we managed, so now we have 9 universities from 4 countries involved, and we’ve been growing.
My main motivation for running MarketsView is to assist the younger generation to achieve their goals in the financial industry. I believe that this is the key to global success in the future, as finance is a critical area in the current world. It requires creative, innovative and knowledgeable individuals to run it, and that is what we are trying to help cultivate at MarketsView.
Our website has quite a few features to offer. The main feature is the reports we produce on stocks from different industries, such as banking, technology, pharmaceuticals and others. Those reports dive deep into the stock markets and can be beneficial both for learning and for investing, albeit not being individual investment recommendations. You can also find reports on commodities and currencies on the website, which can be useful to understand how oil prices affect stock markets, how you can use gold to hedge against the risk of your portfolio, and why currencies might affect the return of your portfolio when you invest abroad.
Another interesting opportunity we offer is our Financial Training Section. There, you can find videos explaining basic financial terms used in our reports that will help you build your knowledge base of financial terms. Videos range from explaining terms like market capitalisation to macroeconomic policies, like how the government may use fiscal policy to achieve its objectives.
The videos are made in a way that is easy to understand, so even if you are a beginner in financial topics, you will largely benefit from them.
Last but not least, we offer opportunities for internships and positions such as analysts and representatives. If your university is not yet represented at MarketsView, you can apply to become a representative. If your university is already represented, the analyst vacancies may be right for you. If you are a student in secondary school, feel free to apply for our one-week internship to improve your financial knowledge and networking skills.
Please visit our website— we hope that you’ll find something useful for yourself. If you want to support us, there’s a donation feature at the bottom of the main page.
Help the next generation succeed by following MarketsView and spreading the word about us to your friends!
Maksim Ustinov
Founder and President of MarketsView