LESSON 2 / 100
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TSLA248.42+3.80%·
NVDA875.39+2.10%·
AMD168.75+1.90%·
AMZN185.90+1.30%·
AAPL189.84+1.20%·
NFLX628.40+1.10%·
GOOGL174.11+0.90%·
MSFT415.06+0.80%·
META502.12+0.60%·
SPY521.67+0.40%·

Section 1 · Stock Fundamentals

What is the Stock Market?

The place where buyers and sellers come together to trade stocks.

Think of a farmers market — for companies.

The stock market is not one building. It is a network of exchanges, computers, and traders all connected. Every second, millions of buy and sell orders flow in. The price you see is simply the last price someone agreed to pay.

3 things to know

📡

The US stock market processes over 10 billion shares on a normal trading day.

🕙

Regular trading hours are 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM ET, Monday through Friday.

🌍

There are stock markets in over 60 countries around the world.

Dive Deeper

Without a Stock Market
With a Stock Market
Companies fund growth only from private investors or loans
Companies raise millions instantly by selling shares publicly
Ordinary people cannot invest in private companies
Anyone with $1 can own a piece of Apple, Tesla, or Amazon
No standard pricing — hard to know fair value
Transparent real-time prices for every public company
Illiquid — difficult to sell your stake quickly
Highly liquid — sell your shares in seconds during market hours

Key vocabulary — tap each card

Practice

Market Mechanics — True or False?

Statement 1 of 3

The NYSE and NASDAQ are the only two stock exchanges in the world.

💡

Did you know?

The first stock market was created in Amsterdam in 1602 for the Dutch East India Company — the world's first publicly traded company.

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🧠 Knowledge Check

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Answer all questions correctly to unlock the next lesson

The first stock market in history was created in...