A Stock Exchange is an exchange which serves as the venue for organised transactions with various securities and stocks (as there are shares, bonds, financial derivatives and others). At the exchange, demand and supply of investors and the issuer of securities meet.
The stock exchange in practice: Stock exchanges are part of the capital market and organisations as well as companies use it to gain or to invest financial means of a medium-term and long-term character. Securities and stocks can be issued by anybody who fulfils the appropriate stock exchange criteria.
At the stock exchange, trading usually occurs through middlemen - brokers or brokerage firms which facilitate the sale and the purchase of the securities and stocks.
The best-known stock-exchanges:
NYSE New York Stock Exchange
NASDAQ – National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations
LSE – London Stock Exchange
BSE – Bombay Stock Exchange
SSE – Shanghai Stock Exchange
HKEX – Hong Kong Stock Exchange
FWB – Frankfurt Stock Exchange
Euronext – Euronext Paris