science

MarketWatch

MarketWatch is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand MarketWatch rather than just read about it. In short: MarketWatch is a website that provides financial information, business news, analysis, and stock market data. It is a subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company, a property of News Corp, along with The Wall Street Journal and Barron's.

Key takeaways

MarketWatch belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect MarketWatch to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of MarketWatch from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

MarketWatch is a website that provides financial information, business news, analysis, and stock market data. It is a subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company, a property of News Corp, along with The Wall Street Journal and Barron's.

History The company was conceived as DBC Online by Data Broadcasting Corporation in the fall of 1995. The marketwatch.com domain name was registered on July 30, 1997. The website launched on October 30, 1997, as a 50/50 joint venture between DBC and CBS News, then run by Larry Kramer and co-founder and chairman, Derek Reisfield. Thom Calandra was its first editor-in-chief. In 1999, the company hired David Callaway and in 2003, Callaway became editor-in-chief. In January 1999, during the dot-com bubble, the company became a public company via an initial public offering. After pricing at $17 per share, the stock traded as high as $130 per share on its first day of trading, giving it a market capitalization of over $1 billion despite only $7 million in annual revenues. In June 2000, the company formed a joint venture with the Financial Times with Peter Bale as managing editor. In January 2004, Calandra resigned amidst allegations of insider trading. In January 2005, Dow Jones & Company acquired the company for $528 million, or $18 per share. In May 2016, MarketWatch hired Dan Shar as general manager. In October 2020, MarketWatch announced that it would become a paywalled subscription-based publication, in order to "raise the ambitions of our journalism". Mark DeCambre was named editor in chief on March 21, 2022.

See also CBS MoneyWatch, CBS News's replacement for MarketWatch List of assets owned by News Corp List of financial market information services Money (financial website)

References

External links Official website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with MarketWatch

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what MarketWatch claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to MarketWatch before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about MarketWatch ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of MarketWatch

In research: MarketWatch appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses MarketWatch in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: MarketWatch is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1999 initial public offerings, 2005 mergers and acquisitions, Dot-com bubble, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for MarketWatch outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study MarketWatch in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what MarketWatch means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain MarketWatch out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is MarketWatch in simple terms?

Why does MarketWatch matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study MarketWatch?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on MarketWatch.