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What is the stock market or Share market

The stock market refers to the collection of markets and exchanges where regular activities of buying, selling, and issuance of shares of publicly-held companies take place. Such financial activities are conducted through institutionalized formal exchanges(highly regulated) or over-the-counter (OTC) marketplaces(less regulated) which operate under a defined set of regulations. There can be multiple stock trading venues in a country or a region which allow transactions in stocks and other forms of securities.

Stock market and stock exchange are used interchangeably many times , Stock exchange is part of stock market where ‘exchange’ of stocks happen. If one says that she trades in the stock market, it means that she buys and sells shares/equities on one (or more) of the stock exchanges like Nifty/Sensex/Dow jones etc that are part of the stock market. The leading stock exchanges in the India is National stock Exchange (NIFTY) and in U.S. , it is the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Stock market is also sometimes called equity market or capital markets and is primarily known for trading stocks/equities . But other financial instruments – like exchange traded funds (ETF’s), bonds and derivatives based on stocks, commodities, currencies are also traded in the stock markets.

To start Investing in stock market , read “How to start investing in stock market”

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