Equity refers to shareholders' or owner’s equity and represents the amount of money that would be returned to a company’s shareholders if all of the assets were liquidated and then all of the company's debt was paid off. Shareholder equity can represent the book value of a company. Equity may be offered as payment-in-kind. It also represents the pro-rata ownership of a company's shares. Equity is displayed in a company's balance sheet and is one of the most common pieces of data employed by analysts to assess the financial health of a company. A stock market, equity market, or share market is the aggregation of buyers and sellers of stocks/shares, which represent ownership claims on businesses; these may include securities listed on a public stock exchange, as well as stock that is only traded privately, such as shares of private companies which are sold to investors through equity crowdfunding platforms. Investment in the stock market is most often done via stockbrokerages and electronic trading platforms. The total market capitalization of equity backed securities worldwide was about US$70.75 trillion. There are about 60 stock exchanges in the world. Of these, there are 16 exchanges with a market capitalization of $1 trillion or more, and they account for 87% of global market capitalization. Participants in the stock market range from small individual stock investors to larger investors, who can be based anywhere in the world, and may include banks, insurance companies, pension funds and hedge funds. Their buy or sell orders may be executed on their behalf by a stock exchange trader. Some exchanges are physical locations where transactions are carried out on a trading floor, by a method known as open outcry. This method is used in some stock exchanges and commodities exchanges, and involves traders shouting bid and offer prices. The other type of stock exchange has a network of computers where trades are made electronically. An example of such an exchange is the NASDAQ. A potential buyer bids a specific price for a stock, and a potential seller asks a specific price for the same stock. When the bid and ask prices match, a sale takes place, on a first-come, first-served basis if there are multiple bidders at a given price. The purpose of a stock exchange is to facilitate the exchange of securities between buyers and sellers, thus providing a marketplace. The exchanges provide real-time trading information on the listed securities, facilitating price discovery. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is a physical exchange, with a hybrid market for placing orders electronically from any location as well as on the trading floor whereas the NASDAQ is an electronic exchange, where all of the trading is done over a computer network. The Paris Bourse, now part of Euronext, is an order-driven, electronic stock exchange. It was automated in the late 1980s. Economic and financial theories argue that stock prices are affected by macroeconomic trends such as GDP rates, unemployment rates, national income, price indices, output, consumption, unemployment, inflation, saving, investment, energy, international trade, immigration, productivity, aging populations, innovations, international finance, corporate profit etc. Investment strategies can be classified as either fundamental analysis or technical analysis. Fundamental analysis refers to analyzing companies by their financial statements found in SEC filings, business trends, and general economic conditions. Technical analysis studies price actions in markets through the use of charts and quantitative techniques to attempt to forecast price trends based on historical performance, regardless of the company's financial prospects. A bond is a fixed income instrument that represents a loan made by an investor to a borrower. A bond could be thought of as an I.O.U. between the lender and borrower that includes the details of the loan and its payments. Bonds are used by companies, municipalities, states, and sovereign governments to finance projects and operations. Owners of bonds are debtholders, or creditors, of the issuer. Bond details include the end date when the principal of the loan is due to be paid to the bond owner and usually includes the terms for variable or fixed interest payments made by the borrower. Bonds are commonly referred to as fixed income securities and are one of three asset classes individual investors are usually familiar with, along with stocks (equities) and cash equivalents. A derivative is a contract between two or more parties whose value is based on an agreed-upon underlying financial asset (like a security) or set of assets (like an index). Common underlying instruments include bonds, commodities, currencies, interest rates, market indexes, and stocks. Typically, derivatives are considered advanced investing. There are two classes of derivative products: "lock" and "option." Lock products (e.g. swaps, futures, or forwards) bind the respective parties from the outset to the agreed-upon terms over the life of the contract. Option products (e.g. stock options), on the other hand, offer the holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell the underlying asset or security at a specific price on or before the option's expiration date. While a derivative's value is based on an asset, ownership of a derivative doesn't mean ownership of the asset. Sources- Various, Britannica, Wikipedia..
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