Whois & Analysis for thestreet.com

A stock market, equity market or share market is the aggregation of buyers and sellers (a loose network of economic transactions, not a physical facility or discrete entity) of stocks (also called shares), which represent ownership claims on businesses; these may include securities listed on a public stock exchange as well as those only traded privately.

Examples of the latter include shares of private companies which are sold to investors through equity crowdfunding platforms.

Stock exchanges list shares of common equity as well as other security types, e.g. corporate bonds and convertible bonds.

A stock trader or equity trader or share trader is a person or company involved in trading equity securities.

Stock traders may be an agent, hedger, arbitrageur, speculator, stockbroker or investor.

A stock investor is an individual or company who puts money to use by the purchase of equity securities, offering potential profitable returns, as interest, income, or appreciation in value (capital gains).

This buy-and-hold long term strategy is passive in nature, as opposed to speculation, which is typically active in nature.

Many stock speculators will trade bonds (and possibly other financial assets) as well.

Stock speculation is a risky and complex occupation because the direction of the markets are generally unpredictable and lack transparency, also financial regulators are sometimes unable to adequately detect, prevent and remediate irregularities committed by malicious listed companies or other financial market participants.

A financial market is a market in which people trade financial securities, commodities, and other fungible items of value at low transaction costs and at prices that reflect supply and demand.

Securities include stocks and bonds, and commodities include precious metals or agricultural products.

In finance, market data is price and trade-related data for a financial instrument reported by a trading venue such as a stock exchange.

Market data allows traders and investors to know the latest price and see historical trends for instruments such as equities, fixed-income products, derivatives and currencies.