A stock exchange, or stock market, is a system for buying and selling securities, or stocks and bonds. A stock is a share in the ownership of a company. A bond is an agreement to lend money to a company for a certain amount of time. Companies sell securities to people to get the money they need to grow. People buy securities as investments, or ways of possibly earning money.
Many countries have one or more stock exchanges. Some important exchanges are the New York Stock Exchange (in the United States), the London Stock Exchange (in England), and the Tokyo Stock Exchange (in Japan). These and other exchanges do much of their business in buildings. NASDAQ, in the United States, is an exchange that does its business electronically, or online.
