There is capital, debt, commodities, futures, options. Stock markets around the world are usually organized into stock exchanges. Exchanges are generally classified as domestic, regional and over-the-counter markets. For example, the largest stock exchange in the United States is the New York Stock Exchange, which has the highest trading volume in the world.
Regional exchanges include the Chicago Stock Exchange and the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. Over-the-counter markets include stocks that are not formally listed on any exchange. The most important stock exchanges include the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Nasdaq Exchange and the OTC markets. Each has different listing requirements for companies that want to use their services to raise capital from investors.
Two of the basic concepts of stock trading are the “bullish” and “bearish” markets. The term bull market is used to refer to a stock market in which the price of shares is generally rising. This is the type of market in which most investors thrive, since most equity investors are buyers, not short sellers, of stocks. Is there a bear market when stock prices are generally falling.
Although the vast majority of stocks are traded on exchanges, some are traded on over-the-counter (OTC) markets, where buyers and sellers of shares usually trade through an agent, or “market maker”, who deals specifically with stocks. To facilitate this process, a company needs a market where these shares can be sold, and this is achieved by the stock market. Other major countries, such as France and Germany, eventually developed their own stock exchanges, although they were often considered primarily as a springboard for companies heading to list on the LSE or the NYSE. For example, Nikkei (Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average) is often cited when talking about Japan's Tokyo Stock Exchange.
However, because the index is so exclusive, its performance doesn't necessarily reflect the rest of the stock market. In cases like these, most stocks tend to rise and fall at the same time, depending on how much a specific industry is expected to gain or suffer. Although stock trading dates back to the mid-16th century in Antwerp, it is generally recognized that modern stock trading begins with the trading of shares of the East India Company in London. The market capitalization of a stock, or market capitalization, is the total value of all outstanding shares.
Stock exchanges are regulated by government agencies, such as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which oversee the market to protect investors from financial fraud and to keep the foreign exchange market functioning properly. The company's shares were issued on paper, allowing investors to trade shares back and forth with other investors, but regulated exchanges did not exist until the formation of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in 1773. There are countless stock selection methods used by analysts and investors, but practically all of them are one form or another of the two basic stock buying strategies, investing in value or investing in growth. Stock analysts and investors can analyze a variety of factors to indicate the likely future direction of a stock, up or down in price. These are people who research publicly traded companies and try to predict whether a company's shares are likely to rise or fall in price.
On the other hand, the returns of a diversified portfolio tend to be lower than what an investor could obtain if they chose a single winning stock. OTC stocks are not subject to the same public information regulations as publicly traded stocks, so it's not as easy for investors to obtain reliable information about the companies that issue such shares. .
