Equity Market Definition of 'Equity Market'

The market in which shares are issued and traded, either through exchanges or over-the-counter markets. Also known as the stock market, it is one of the most vital areas of a market economy because it gives companies access to capital and investors a slice of ownership in a company with the potential to realize gains based on its future performance. A stock market or equity market is the aggregation of buyers and sellers (a loose network of economic transactions, not a physical facility or discrete entity) of stocks (shares); these are securities listed on astock exchange as well as those only traded privately. Stocks are partitioned in various ways. One common way is by the country where the company is domiciled. For example, Nestle, Roche, and Novartis are domiciled in Switzerland, so they are part of the Swiss stock market. The size of the world stock market was estimated at about $36.6 trillion at the beginning of October 2008.[1] The total world derivatives market has been estimated at about $791 trillion face or nominal value,[2] 11 times the size of the entire world economy.[3] The value of the derivatives market, because it is stated in terms of notional values, cannot be directly compared to a stock or a fixed income security, which traditionally refers to an actual value. Moreover, the vast majority of derivatives 'cancel' each other out (i.e., a derivative 'bet' on an event occurring is offset by a comparable derivative 'bet' on the event notoccurring). Many such relatively illiquid securities are valued as marked to model, rather than an actual market price. The stocks are listed and traded on stock exchanges which are entities of a corporation or mutual organization specialized in the business of bringing buyers and sellers of the organizations to a listing of stocks and securities together.

NASDAQ The NASDAQ Stock Market ( i/nzdk/), commonly known as theNASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. NASDAQ stands for National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations.[3] It is the second-largest stock

exchange in the world by market capitalization, after the New York Stock Exchange. The exchange platform is owned by NASDAQ OMX Group, which also owns the OMX stock market network. History[edit] NASDAQ was founded in 1971[4] by the National Association of Securities Dealers(NASD), who divested themselves of it in a series of sales in 2000 and 2001. It is owned and operated by the NASDAQ OMX Group, the stocks of which was listed on its own stock exchange beginning July 2, 2002, under the ticker symbol NDAQ. It is regulated by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the successor to the NASD. When the NASDAQ began trading on February 8, 1971, it was the world's first electronic stock market. At first, it was merely a quotation system and did not give a way to actually do electronic trades.[5] The NASDAQ helped lower the spread (the difference between the bid price and the ask price of the stock) but was unpopular among brokerages which made much of their money on the spread. NASDAQ was the successor to the over-the-counter (OTC) system of trading. As late as 1987, the NASDAQ exchange was still commonly referred to as the OTC in media and also in the monthly Stock Guides issued byStandard & Poor's Corporation. NASDAQ Stock Market

Type Location

Stock exchange New York City, New York,United States February 4, 1971 NASDAQ OMX Group

Founded Owner

Currency

United States dollar

No. of listings 2,709 (Sept 2013)[1] MarketCap Volume Website $4.45 trillion (Jan 2012)[2] $982 billion (Feb 2011) NASDAQ.com

NASDAQ is a premier stock exchange situated in New York City, United States. It is owned by The NASDAQ OMX Group. Founded in 1971, the acronym NASDAQ then stood for National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations; but this has later been deemed obsolete. Robert Greifeld is the current CEO of NASDAQ which is at present the largest stock exchange in the U.S. that uses an electronic screen based display. It is also World Number Four in sheer market capitalization. It has 3 Indices: NASDAQ Composite, NASDAQ-100 and NASDAQ Biotechnology Index. It has approximately 3800 listings. It is therefore very important to understand the importance of NASDAQ. Roles played by NASDAQ in the economy NASDAQ has a very important role to play in global as well as local economy. In the U.S. alone, it is the single most trusted ground for any company to list its shares on. All major global conglomerates have their stocks listed on NASDAQ. NASDAQ caters to various sectors as follows:

Accounting Commodities Corporate Finance Debt/Bonds Economics Energy and Industrials ETFs and Funds Financial Analysis Financial Services Foreign Markets

Foreign Exchange General Market Healthcare & Biotech Insurance News Media & Entertainment Personal Finance Real Estate Retirement Retail Technical Analysis Technology Utilities Wireless & Telecom

NASDAQ has all corporate and company listings NASDAQ has all corporate and company listings on its web-site as well. It provides a portfolio tracker as well. To make it easier to understand, NASDAQ has a dedicated group of people to provide information and advice to budding as well as established market investors. It also offers personalized (customizable) stock market alerts to subscribers. It provides instant at-a-click stock quotes, stock charts, global indices and quotes, along with a superbly accurate Live Quote service. NASDAQ never sleeps! Its normal trading session starts at 9:30am ET and ends at 4:00pm ET. But it also provides After Hours Quotes (4:00pm to 8:00pm ET), Pre Market Quotes (7:00am to 9:30am ET), After Hours Most Active, Pre Market Most Active etc. NASDAQ has a dedicated portal for tracking market activity. It has sections on Market Indices, Most Active, Sector Analysis, 52 Week High and Low and total returns. It also tracks unusual volumes. It has a dedicated news service that caters to different channels like Market Headlines, Bond Market News, Economic Calendar, Financial News, Dividend Stock News, Equities, and Learning Markets as well as provides business videos. NASDAQ has a dedicated investment channel wherein it provides services like Broker Comparison, Closed End Funds analysis, ETF analysis, Financial Advisor Center, Forex analysis, Investing Basics, Initial Public Offerings (IPO) analysis, Mutual Funds analysis, NASDAQ OMX Indexes, NASDAQ Newsletter, Investment Options analysis, Stock Trading analysis, Structured Products analysis, Trading Tools and Market Replay analysis. You should know the insights of the working of the stock market if you really wish to

make some profitable income in the stock market. This is very helpful to you as well. Deals in personal finance NASDAQ also deals in personal finance opportunities like Banking & Loans, Educational Loans, Credit & Debt, Insurance, Insurance, Real Estate, Retirement and Small Business Development. In addition, NASDAQ provides a lucrative career opportunity in itself. It has a huge work force of thousands of employees, stock brokers and the like. It provides employment in sectors like Asset Management, Capital Markets, Commercial Banking, Commodities, Compliance / Legal, Consulting, Corporate, Credit, Debt / Fixed Income, Derivatives, Equities, FX & Money Markets, Global Custody, Government, Graduates & Internships, Hedge Funds, HR & Recruitment, Information Services, Information Technology, Insurance, Investment Banking / M & A, Investment Consulting, Investor Relations / PR, Operations, Private Banking / Wealth Management, Private Equity / Venture Capital, Quantitative Analytics, Real Estate, Research, Retail Banking, Risk Management , Sales & Marketing, and Trading. So we can now see the very important roles that NASDAQ has been playing, not only in the economy of the United States, but also in the global economy since 1971. This should help us to understand the importance of NASDAQ.
Stock Exchanges in Europe

Eurex (derivatives exchange, jointly operated by Deutsche Brse AG and SWX Swiss Exchange) European Energy Exchange (EEX) ICE Futures Europe NASDAQ OMX Europe Newex (trading segment for central and eastern European securities on the Regulated Unofficial Market of Frankfurt Stock Exchange) NYSE Euronext (pan-European stock exchange with subsidiaries in Belgium, France, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Portugal and the UK; include the New York Stock Exchange, Euronext, Liffe, and NYSE Arca Options) OMX Nordic Exchange (part of NASDAQ OMX Group, serves as a central gateway to the Nordic and Baltic financial markets)

EXCHANGE RATE QUOTATIONS

Definition: An exchange rate is the number of units of one currency that one requires in order to purchase one unit of another currency
An example of a quote is US$0.8/C$. This means that you can exchange a Can$ for US$0.80. In other words, you can buy a C$ by paying 80 US cents.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE MARKETS

Size - Fx Market =The largest financial market in the world - Most important markets: (daily turnover in 1995) - London $464 billion - NY $244 billion - Tokyo $161 billion - Less important markets: - Singapore, Hong Kong, Zurich ($90-$115b) Markets: - Spot Market - Forward Market - Futures Market - Options Market

Benchmark
Definition The performance of a predetermined set of securities, used for comparison purposes. Such sets may be based on published indexes or may be customized to suit an investment strategy.

Definition of 'Call Option'

An agreement that gives an investor the right (but not the obligation) to buy a stock, bond, commodity, or other instrument at a specified price within a specific time period.

Investopedia explains 'Call Option'

It may help you to remember that a call option gives you the right to "call in" (buy) an asset. You profit on a call when the underlying asset increases in price.

Definition of 'Put Option'

An option contract giving the owner the right, but not the obligation, to sell a specified amount of an underlying security at a specified price within a specified time. This is the opposite of a call option, which gives the holder the right to buy shares.

Investopedia explains 'Put Option'

A put becomes more valuable as the price of the underlying stock depreciates relative to the strike price. For example, if you have one Mar 08 Taser 10 put, you have the right to sell

100 shares of Taser at $10 until March 2008 (usually the third Friday of the month). If shares of Taser fall to $5 and you exercise the option, you can purchase 100 shares of Taser for $5 in the market and sell the shares to the option's writer for $10 each, which means you make $500 (100 x ($10-$5)) on the put option. Note that the maximum amount of potential proft in this example ignores the premium paid to obtain the put option.

Definition of 'Forward Market'

An over-thecounter marketplace that sets the price of a financial instrument or asset for future delivery. Contracts entered into in the forward market are binding on the parties involved. Forward markets are used for trading a range of instruments including currencies and interest rates, as well as assets such as commodities and securities.

Investopedia explains 'Forward Market'

While forward contracts, like futures contracts, may be may be used for both hedging and speculation, there are some notable differences between the two. Forward contracts can be customized to fit a customer's requirements, while futures contracts have standardized features in terms of their contract size and maturity.

The lack of standard features means that forward contracts seldom trade on exchanges, whereas futures contracts are generally exchange-listed. Since forward contracts generally tend to be large in size, the forward market is dominated by financial institutions, government bodies and large corporations.

Definition of 'Spot Market'

1. A commodities or securities market in which goods are sold for cash and delivered immediately. Contracts bought and sold on these markets are immediately effective. 2. A futures transaction for which commodities can be reasonably expected to be delivered in one month or less. Though these goods may be bought and sold at spot prices, the goods in question are traded on a

forward physical market.

Investopedia explains 'Spot Market'

1. The spot market is also called the "cash market" or "physical market", because prices are settled in cash on the spot at current market prices, as opposed to forward prices. 2. Crude oil is an example of a future that is sold at spot prices but its physical delivery occurs in one month or less.