1. The places where the shares trade.
Shares are exchanged on stock exchanges, which are marketplaces designed expressly for the buying and selling of stocks. Almost every country on the earth has a stock exchange for publicly traded corporations, and some have several exchanges.
Stock exchanges are not open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As a result, you can only purchase and sell shares while the exchange where they are listed is open.
2. 4 biggest places of exchange
1. NYSE
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, sometimes known as “The Big Board”) is an American stock exchange located in New York City’s Financial District. The NYSE trading floor is located on 11 Wall Street and 18 Broad Street in the New York Stock Exchange Building, which is a National Historic Landmark.
The New York Stock Exchange is controlled by Intercontinental Exchange, an American holding corporation that also trades on the stock exchange (NYSE: ICE). It includes many notable stocks such as BOA, Coca-Cola, Disney, HSBC, etc.
NYSE is a stock exchange that allows buyers and sellers to trade shares of stock in publicly traded corporations. With the exception of holidays stated by the Exchange in advance, the NYSE is open for trading Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET.
2. NASDAQ
The Nasdaq Stock Market is a New York-based American stock market. After the New York Stock Exchange, it is rated second on the list of stock exchanges by market capitalization of shares traded. Nasdaq, Inc., which also controls the Nasdaq Nordic stock market network and many U.S. stock and options exchanges, owns the exchange platform.
It was founded to facilitate electronic trading, now it includes major tech companies: Apple, Adobe, Amazon, Microsoft, and Paypal, etc. The NASDAQ is open for trading Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET.
3. LSE
The London Stock Exchange is an English stock exchange located in the City of London. The total market value of all firms trading on the London Stock Exchange was £3.8 trillion as of March 2021. Its present headquarters are at Paternoster Square in the City of London, near St Paul’s Cathedral. It’s a subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group. It includes many international stocks: AstraZeneca, Unilever, Legal & General, HSBC, and Royal Dutch Shell, etc. The LSE is open for trading Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. GMT.
4. TYO
The Tokyo Stock Exchange is one of Japan’s stock exchanges, headquartered in Nihonbashidoucho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, and belongs to the Japan Exchange Group. The size of the Tokyo Stock Exchange is among the top five in the world.
The TYO is a membership-based stock exchange. Those eligible to become members of the Exchange are limited to securities companies that meet certain standards. There are currently 3729 listed companies with members. It includes Sharp, Nintendo, Meji and Panasonic, etc. The TYO is open for trading Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.; from 12:30 p.m. to 15:00 p.m. JST.2
3. Stockbrokers
Stockbrokers are businesses that invest in equities on behalf of their clients. Who can use stock exchanges to purchase and sell shares directly is governed by rules. For the vast majority of individual investors, this entails utilizing a broker.
A stockbroker might be one of three categories. Execution-only implies they solely act on your orders; advisory means they may provide recommendations and discretionary means they conduct transactions without your involvement.
How can businesses go public on stock exchanges?
When a private business wishes to list and become public, it will do so through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on a stock exchange (IPO). This is the first time a company’s stock is issued. IPOs excite markets because they are the first opportunity for regular investors to weigh in on a firm.
Because public corporations are subject to more rules than private companies, preparation for an initial public offering (IPO) can take a long time. When a company is ready to go public, it will usually offer its stock at a fixed price, and investors will be able to apply to acquire shares. The company’s shares can then be purchased and sold as usual after the listing is complete.
- What factors influence the price of a stock?
Demand for different economies, sectors, and firms causes share values to vary regularly. The following are some of the variables that may create stock market volatility:
Income
Listed firms are required to declare their income, earnings, and other financial information on a regular basis — normally quarterly, with an annual in-depth report. Investors will scrutinize these announcements in-depth, seeking clues as to how a firm is functioning today and in the future.
Information about a firm
The impact of positive or bad news on a company’s stock price is common. Demand might grow or decline as a result of new product releases, management changes, or scandals. The Volkswagen emissions scandal in 2015, for example, had a huge negative impact on the company’s stock price.
Factors from outside
News about a company’s economy, industry, competitors, and trade circumstances may all have an impact on demand and, as a result, its stock price. In fact, stocks in the same industry typically respond in the same way to the same headlines.
Corporate behavior
A huge company’s life is rarely easy, and a lot of significant events have an impact on the price of its stock. These can include the following:
- Mergers and acquisitions of one corporation by another are common.
- When a company offers extra shares to the market in order to generate funds, this is known as a rights issue.
- Share buybacks occur when a corporation begins purchasing its own stock.
- When directors purchase or sell their own shares in the firm, this is referred to as “directors’ transactions.”
- Special dividends are dividends handed out by firms when they have a lot of cash on hand.
