Any company which desires to start a new venture will require a capital for it. If not having the required capital in hand these companies make a public offer, in which they can offer their shares to the investors to generate the required money. This offer is termed as an IPO (initial public offering) in which the shares of the company are released at a decided price and number. The number and cost of the shares in the IPO depends mainly on the capital required by the companies for starting this project. Then these shares enter the secondary market and are available for trading by investors through exchanges like the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange), NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation) and the TSE (Toronto Stock Exchange).

The price of share mainly depends on its demand and supply in the market. The more the demand by the investors the higher is the price and more the supply of the share the lower is the market price. Therefore the demand and supply decides the price of the share in the market. The trading of shares is done through the exchanges like the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) or NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation) and the TSE (Toronto Stock Exchange) where they can be bought and sold.

Having understood the concept of stock exchange and the price of shares, let us now see how the investor trades in these shares. To begin a share trading in the stock market one has to open up an investment account either through a brokerage firm or an online account which allows internet trading.

* Find and read the quote – Read financial newspapers, magazines and sites and search for companies or any products that appear interesting or catch your eye.

The stocks can be bought through an initial issue or a secondary market. Institutional and accredited investors get an advantage of getting IPO’s than normal investors. However the secondary market is full of action with more of buying and selling of shares. This buying and selling happens among the investors in the exchange and the company gets nothing through this transaction.

* Days Range and the 52 Wk Range – The days range gives the highest and lowest price the share was traded throughout the day and the 52 Wk Range gives the highest and lowest price the share had in the last 52 weeks of transaction.

* P/E and the EPS – This gives the ratio of the price to the earning of the share (the earning potential of the share) and the EPS stands for the earning per share for the last quarter.

Stock market has been a key source to generate the capital and economy. There have been cases where wrong practices have led to market failures thereby making investment a rigged affair. To know how does the stock market work holds a big importance for new investors before they plan to enter the market. Be it a long term or a short term investor he can make huge amount of money by trading in stock market after having good knowledge and experience in market trading.

Learning how to read the stock market works is very basic for the stock market industry. Anyone who wanted to invest on this business must make sure that he understands this. Day trading is another aspect of the business that he needs to learn.