The Stock Market

9/26/2025 pdw

One way to raise money is to go where the money is. A stock exchange is a market where investors meet to sell securities, like stocks and bonds. The New York Stock Exchange, for example, is a physical building in New York City at 11 Wall St., which is why financial markets are colloquially refered to as Wall Street. For over two hundred years investors and speculators have met there to shout bids and offers at each other.

The scenes are iconic but largely outdated. Most bids and offers are made by algorithms and transmitted electronically to the exchange where an algorithm on the other side accepts the trade.

This section will discuss how these markets work and how we regulate them.

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