Stock Preacher

Understanding the stock exchange.

A stock exchange, share market or bourse is a corporation or mutual organization which provides “trading” facilities for stock brokers and traders, to trade stocks and other securities.

On your last post “What is the Stock Market” I think you a little bit of a idea what is the stock market. Today we are talk about the Stock Exchange.

Stock exchanges also provide facilities for the issue and redemption of securities as well as other financial instruments and capital events including the payment of income and dividends. The securities traded on a stock exchange include: shares issued by companies, unit trusts and other pooled investment products and bonds. To be able to trade a security on a certain stock exchange, it has to be listed there. Usually there is a central location at least for recordkeeping, but trade is less and less linked to such a physical place, as modern markets are electronic networks, which gives them advantages of speed and cost of transactions. Trade on an exchange is by members only. The initial offering of stocks and bonds to investors is by definition done in the primary market and subsequent trading is done in the secondary market. A stock exchange is often the most important component of a stock market. Supply and demand in stock markets is driven by various factors which, as in all free markets, affect the price of stocks (see stock valuation).

There is usually no compulsion to issue stock via the stock exchange itself, nor must stock be subsequently traded on the exchange. Such trading is said to be off exchange or over-the-counter. This is the usual way that bonds are traded. Increasingly, stock exchanges are part of a global market for securities.

In other words, Stock exchanges are responsible for listing and trading the stocks of publicly-owned companies. Stock exchanges may be organized as physical markets where traders are in direct personal contact with each other, such as the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Entirely electronic stock exchanges such as the Nasdaq National Market may have no central location at all. The primary function of stock exchanges is to match buyers with sellers. Because they are always looking for ways to bring down transaction costs, stock exchanges are often early adopters of advanced technologies. Trading on stock exchanges is done exclusively by members of the exchange. In addition to trading amongst themselves for their own purposes, exchange members also execute trade requests for the general public.

Here are the main stock exchanges:

• American Stock Exchange
• Australian Securities Exchange
• Belgrade Stock Exchange
• Bermuda Stock Exchange
• Bolsa Mexicana de Valores
• Bolsa de Valores de Colombia
• Bolsa de Valores de Lima
• Bombay Stock Exchange
• Bucharest Stock Exchange
• Budapest Stock Exchange
• Casablanca Stock Exchange
• Channel Islands Stock Exchange
• Euronext Amsterdam
• Euronext Brussels
• Euronext Lisbon
• Euronext Paris
• Frankfurt Stock Exchange
• Ghana Stock Exchange
• Helsinki Stock Exchange
• Hong Kong Stock Exchange
• Istanbul Stock Exchange
• Jakarta Stock Exchange
• JASDAQ
• JSE Securities Exchange
• Karachi Stock Exchange
• Korea Stock Exchange
• Kuwait Stock Exchange
• Lahore Stock Exchange
• London Stock Exchange
• Madrid Stock Exchange
• Malaysia Stock Exchange
• Milan Stock Exchange
• Nagoya Stock Exchange
• Nigeria Stock Exchange
• National Stock Exchange of India
• NASDAQ
• New York Stock Exchange
• Osaka Securities Exchange
• Philippine Stock Exchange
• Santiago Stock Exchange
• São Paulo Stock Exchange
• Shanghai Stock Exchange
• Shenzhen Stock Exchange
• Singapore Exchange
• Stockholm Stock Exchange
• Taiwan Stock Exchange
• Tehran Stock Exchange
• Tokyo Stock Exchange
• Toronto Stock Exchange
• Warsaw Stock Exchange
• Zurich Stock Exchange