Global Industry Classification Standards (GICS)
Companies are divided into sectors within the stock market. It makes it easier to compare companies with similar background. There are 11 different sectors, from these broad sectors companies can be further broken down into different categories. Also these sectors can be traded on the stock market. The stock ticker symbol next to each sector represents an ETF for that sector. ETF stands for exchanged traded fund. This means the ETF trades in stocks and securities of a specific sector or industry. There are other ETFs available for each sector.
- Energy XLE
- Material XLB
- Industrials XLI
- Utilities XLU
- Healthcare XLV
- Financials XLF
- Consumer Discretionary XLY
- Consumer Staples XLP
- Information Technology XLK
- Communication Services XLC
- Real Estate XLRE
A beautiful website www.Finviz.com has the 11 broad GICS sector broken down into smaller categories. Lets use the Technology Sector as an example:
Technology
- Software – Infrastructure
- Semi Conductors
- Information Technology Service
- Consumer Electronics
- Software Application
- Communication Equipment
- Semiconductor Equipment & Materials
- Electronic Components
- Computer Hardware
- Scientific & Technical Instruments
Each of these subcategories under technology are list of companies in which a person can compare financial statements and stock performance. If a stock in one of these categories is not doing well maybe their competition is doing better job.
How do we homeschooling using this?
- Become familiar with the broad categories
- Compare the sectors ETFs stock performance with each of the broad sectors. What sectors are performing the best and the worst?
- Within the broad categories look at the subcategories
- Be able to look at stock performance of the top two leaders in the subcategory
- Compare the companies financial statements and resent financial news of both companies
It does not need to be detailed, if that is your preference. Just an overview so if the children ever hear anything about it, they will not be completely clueless. It is also for me since I am learning right along with them.