From the Scholars Strategy Network, written by Paul Lichterman, University of Southern California

From the Scholars Strategy Network, written by Sarah Elizabeth Gollust of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. This piece has been edited for Journalist’s Resource.

Reporting intelligently about the financial markets has become increasingly important as more people have added stocks to their financial portfolios. Just 40 years ago less than 20% of U.S. households had some sort of stock ownership; now more than half do. While stocks are the most widely known financial product traded in the markets, others include bonds (debt, essentially), commodities and futures contracts, and currency.