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Market

Also called: Financial market

What is a market?

A market provides avenues for buyers and sellers to trade financial assets, such as stocks, bonds, and other securities. The term can broadly encompass other security markets like stock and bond markets.

Each financial market has a primary and secondary market. Primary markets are where securities are born. In the case of stocks, companies create an initial public offering (IPO), where investors can purchase shares directly from companies. The secondary market is where most trading activity occurs when investors buy and sell securities to one another. Popular secondary markets include the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or the Nasdaq.