Speak to a representative now

The term "stock market" often refers to one of the major stock market indexes, such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average or the S&P 500. Because it's hard to track every single stock, these indexes include a section of the stock market and their performance is viewed as representative of the entire market.

You might see a news headline that says the stock market has moved lower, or that the stock market closed up or down for the day. Most often, this means stock market indexes have moved up or down, meaning the stocks within the index have either gained or lost value as a whole. Investors who buy and sell stocks hope to turn a profit through this movement in stock prices.  The concept behind how the stock market works is pretty simple. Operating much like an auction house, the stock market enables buyers and sellers to negotiate prices and make trades. The stock market works through a network of exchanges — you may have heard of the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq. Companies list shares of their stock on an exchange through a process called an initial public offering, also known as an IPO. Investors purchase those shares, which allows the company to raise money to grow its business. Investors can then buy and sell these stocks among themselves, and the exchange tracks the supply and demand of each listed stock.

That supply and demand help determine the price for each security, or the levels at which stock market participants — investors and traders — are willing to buy or sell. Buyers offer a “bid,” or the highest amount they’re willing to pay, which is usually lower than the amount sellers “ask” for in exchange. This difference is called the bid-ask spread. For a trade to occur, a buyer needs to increase his price or a seller needs to decrease.

Stock traders buy and sell stocks to capitalize on daily price fluctuations. These short-term traders are betting that they can make a few bucks in the next minute, hour, day or month, rather than buying stock in a blue-chip company to hold for years or even decades. 

There are two main types of stock trading:

Active trading is what an investor who places 10 or more trades per month does. Typically, they use a strategy that relies heavily on timing the market, trying to take advantage of short-term events (at the company level or based on market fluctuations) to turn a profit in the coming weeks or months.

Day trading is the strategy employed by investors who play hot potato with stocks — buying, selling and closing their positions of the same stock in a single trading day, caring little about the inner workings of the underlying businesses. (Position refers to the amount of a particular stock or fund you own.) The aim of the day trader is to make a few bucks in the next few minutes, hours or days based on daily price fluctuations.

There are other types of stock tradings in addition to these two, including: long term investment stock trading, short sell order method stock trading, stop limit stock trading, immediate-or-cancel method stock trading, all-or-none method stock trading, good til canceled method stock trading, bracketed orders stock trading, etc.