The Stock Market

What do you know about markets? Have you send markets before? What do people do in markets? You probably seen markets before. What goes on in markets? Buying, and selling, right? A market is usually defined as a place where buyers and sellers, who usually doesn't know anything about each other, come to exchange things. However, there is a market called the stock market, a part of the capital market that brings together buyers and sellers.

The location of the stock market is on what is called the trading floor. When reporting on the developments or improvements of the stock market, the media use images of that trading floor. However, a location is not need since there is technology, right? It's what you are using right now - the Internet. On April 23, 1997, the Toronto Stock Exchange, or the TSX, became the largest exchange to be a floorless exchanging system. So, all the trading takes place on the computer!

Wait a minute, what exactly is being exchanged in the stock market? When the whole trading system opened up about 400 years ago, companies and partnerships were created to raise money to build ships and other ventures. Not many had enough money to finance that kind of building.

So, ownership was divided into shares, or stocks. A specific type of share, or stock were sold at a fixed price to the money needed. Any profits will be handed back to the shareholder.

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