The stock market is the exchange of stocks and bonds. Securities are an investment that represents something such as debt or business ownership. In the stock market, people trade securities in stock exchanges.
There are three major stock exchanges in the United States. The largest one is the New York Stock Exchange, which was started way back in 1792. The second one is the American Stock Exchange. Many smaller companies use this one because it has fewer requirements. The National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System (NASDAQ) is a stock exchange, but unlike the other two, this one does not have a location. All trading for NASDAQ is done on the computer.
A bull market occurs when trends move upward and a bear market is when they move downward. The current income of an investment is called a yield. The total return is the yield plus the total gain or loss. These are the two types of investment returns.
An initial public offering is when a company first goes public and offers its stock. When this happens, the company is no longer privately owned. Round lots occur when stocks are sold in groups of 100. If they are sold in groups less then 100, they are odd lots.
Stocks are not the only type of investments out there. There are investments called commodities, which is something you invest in that you hope to increase the value of. An example of a commodity would be anything collectable such as baseball cards.