Stock Markets

Stocks trade on a vast array of international and national stock exchanges. The most famous of all stock exchanges (also refered to as bourses in Europe) is the New York Stock Exchange. Founded under a buttonwood tree in lower Manhattan in 1791, the New York Stock Exchange has become the premier exchange on which to trade stocks. All of the big name blue chip stocks trade on the New York Stock Exchange (known affectionately as the "big board"). Besides the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange), there are two other major United States stock markets. The NASDAQ, a computerized market founded in 1971, is a market made up mostly of technology company stocks. The tech bubble of the late 1990s caused the NASDAQ and its respective indexes to increase subtstantially: these returns however were revered when the bubble burst in the year 2000. The third US stock market, the AMEX, is a small fry exhange. The American Stock Exchange is on the wane; it will probably be engulfed by another exchange sometime in the future. Internationally, there are several major stock markets. In the minor ones you can find positions like online games and other odd things to trade with.

In Europe, the two major exchanges are the LSE (London Stock Exchange) and the Euronext. The LSE, much like the NYSE, contains mainly UK blue chips, along with some dual-listed companies. the Euronext, a conglomeration of the old Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfort bourses, has become the premier exchange in Europe for equity stock market trading. In Asia, the major markets are the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Exhange. Thanks to the massive economic expansion in Asia over the last quarter century, these exchanges have better ever more relevant. The United States, and its powerhouse NYSE, however, has remained to the epicenter of stock makret trading. The New York Stock Exchange is still the big dog.

Polish informations on this topic can be found here.