MARKETS

A MARKET is simply a public place where products or services are bought or sold, directly or through intermediaries.
Most thoughts are of the New York Stock Exchange as this is the oldest, 1792, and largest stock exchange in the United States.
It is located at 11 Wall Street in New York City.
It is also commonly called by other names such as the Big Board or The Exchange.
The NYSE is an unincorporated association governed by a board of directors headed by a full-time paid chairman and comprised of 20 individuals representing the public and the exchange membership in about equal proportion.
Other such markets would be the American Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations system commonly know as NASDAQ.
The NASDAQ is a computerized system that provides brokers and dealers with price quotations for securities traded over the counter as well as for many NYSE listed securities.
Securities traded on the NYSE are traded using the out-cry system wherein traders are standing face to face on the trading floor and physically trading with each other on behalf of their clients or themselves.  Their clients would typically be the brokerage houses with which you might have your account and place your orders through.
In contrast, the NASDAQ is a compilation of many brokers from around the country trading orders that are pulled from many sources to complete a trade at various prices at any given time.
The American Stock Exchange (AMEX) has the second largest volume of trading in the United States and is located at 86 Trinity Place in downtown Manhattan.   The AMEX was also known as the Curb Exchange until 1921 and is sometimes still heard referred to in this manner.

( There is some rich American history behind how this exchange came to be formed and is worth rooting out the source of this information. )

 
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