Stocks

A stock exchange refers to the place where securities such as stocks can be publicly traded. There are many different stock exchanges around the world, including some of the largest and most well-known such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), NASDAQ, and Xetra.

The NYSE is the largest stock exchange in the world and is headquartered in New York City. Blue-chip stocks such as Coca-Cola, IBM, and Walmart are traded here. The NYSE is known for its famous bell that marks the opening and closing of trading.

NASDAQ is also one of the largest exchanges in the world and is headquartered in New York City. Unlike the NYSE, it primarily trades technology stocks such as Apple, Amazon, and Facebook. NASDAQ is also known for its electronic trading platform, which allows for buying and selling stocks online.

Xetra is an electronic trading platform operated by the Deutsche Börse in Frankfurt am Main. It primarily trades German and European stocks. Xetra is known for its high liquidity and fast and reliable trade execution.

A dividend is a distribution of profits from a company to its shareholders. The amount of the dividend depends on the company's profit and its policy for distributing profits. When a company pays a dividend, shareholders typically receive a certain amount of money per share. However, there are also companies that do not pay dividends, but rather reinvest their profits to expand their business.

Shortselling

Short selling is a specialized type of stock trading in which an investor sells stocks that they do not own. The investor borrows these stocks from a broker and sells them on the market. If the stock price falls, the investor can buy the stocks back at a lower price and return them to the broker to realize their profit. Short selling can be very risky, as a rising stock price can cause the investor to have to buy back the stocks at a higher price than they sold them for.