What a stock exchange does

What a stock exchange does.
By John Caldecott.

The stock market is on the news every day. Even on days when there isn’t trading, like a weekend or a holiday, there are people on TV and in the newspaper that are talking about what they think individual stock are going to do and why you should or shouldn’t invest your money right now. We know that a stock market trades stocks. But why? And what good does it provide to the economy?

The stock market is seen by many to be the engine that drives the economy. Businesses and corporations and even governments use the stock market to create capital or wealth. They create this wealth by offering stock, or shares, which are like little pieces of ownership of the company or corporation, and then they trade them. The value of the stock depends on how well the company is doing. The company sells the stock to investors who buy the stock based on if they think the company is going to be making a lot of money or not. This brings in a huge amount of cash into the corporation. IPO’s or initial price offerings are when a company offers stock to the public for the first time ever. A big corporation can make hundreds of millions of dollars or even billions of dollars during their IPO. If the company continues to do well and make money, the stock price goes up, everyone that has shares makes money and more stock is sold to people who want to own a piece of that company.

The same method works if the company is doing badly. The stock loses value as the company does badly, and people then begin to sell the stock and the value of it goes down.

Every company, even the most successful ones, have their stocks go up and down on a monthly basis based on things like earning reports. There is no 100% safe stock, but there are stock that is referred to as “blue chip” stocks, or ones that are the most reliable.

But it isn’t just stock that is traded on a stock exchange like the NYSE. Bonds, securities and commodities are also traded, creating wealth in many different sectors as well as helping the flow of goods and services over the globe. The role of the NYSE and other stock exchanges around the world cannot be overstated in their importance to the world economy.

Godbless,
John Caldecott.