Stock exchange information

A stock exchange is owned by a company and takes place in a building in where people, companies, investment firms etc buy and sell shares of companies. ‘Its the place where the whole stock market happens’.

The major stock exchanges

There are many stock exchanges around the world but in the UK and US these are the main ones you should be aware of.

London stock exchange (LSE)

The London stock exchange is the UK’s leading stock exchange and has the most international coverage of all stock exchanges worldwide. The LSE provides platforms that are used by broker firms to buy and sell stocks an has around 3118 firms trading on its markets.

New York stock exchange (NYSE)

The New York stock exchange is America’s equivalent of the London stock exchange offering an efficient method for traders to buy and sell stock in companies.

The exchange has a global capitalisation of 25 trillion dollars! It has 2,764 listed securities, the second most listed securities in the world, behind the NASDAQ.

The NYSE offers its own index call the NYSE composite index. The index is made up of all the stocks listed on the NYSE, the aim being to offer a more representative index than the 30 stocks listed in the DJ30.

NASDAQ stock exchange

The NASDAQ is one of the US’s main stock exchanges and stands for National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations. The NASDAQ consists primarily of technology stocks such as Google and Microsoft. The NASDAQ stock exchange lists more securities than any other stock exchange in the world.

How do stock exchanges make money?

The stock exchanges make money by selling live data to brokers, individual traders, investment firms etc. They also make money by charging a transaction fee each time a stock is bought or sold, this would be part of the flat fee you are charged as a trader.

Why not read about how indexes represent stock exchanges.

View our recommended internet brokers that allow you to trade shares on stock exchanges.