From the course: Corporate Finance Foundations

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Stock markets

Stock markets

From the course: Corporate Finance Foundations

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Stock markets

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- A stock market, or stock exchange, is just a place, either physical or virtual, where people can come together and trade stocks. For example, the New York Stock Exchange started back in 1792, under a sycamore tree, or a buttonwood tree, in New York on Wall Street, where people who owned stocks or people who represented those who owned stocks could get together and trade those stocks, a stock exchange. An example of a virtual exchange is the NASDAQ, which started in 1971 as just a computer system where people could post up the fact, I own some stock and I want to sell them, or I want to buy some stock. It was a virtual meeting place. The largest stock market in the world is the New York Stock Exchange. And the second largest stock market in the world is the NASDAQ, which started this trend towards more virtual stock markets. Now, here are some unsettling questions to consider. Are stock markets just places for people to gamble? Is there any social value to a stock market? Let me…

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