Stocks are popular financial instruments: they are rather profitable, versatile, and novice-friendly since you can learn how to use them quickly. However, you can’t expect to become a successful trader after reading just a couple of articles online: you need to know how the market works. While that is a matter of experience, you can learn much quicker by memorizing the most important facts about the market, and that’s why we’re going to tell you the most fascinating facts about the stock market in this Traders Union article.
Total capitalization
Total capitalization of a market is the overall value of all assets on that market. The stock market is an extremely valuable one: its global capitalization exceeds $95 trillion, and the US stock market alone is worth more than $42 trillion. That makes stocks one of the most popular securities in the world.
Most expensive stocks
While most stocks represent just a fraction of a company’s value and thus cost just a couple of dollars each, there are extremely expensive shares. For example, Lindt, a Swiss confectionery company, has shares that are valued at more than $105,000. But it’s still far cheaper than the most expensive stock in the world which is Berkshire Hathaway: this holding company led by legendary Warren Buffett costs about $460,000 per class A share.
Most expensive companies
While each company contributes just a small fraction of value to the market, there are businesses that are extremely expensive. For example, Microsoft has a total capitalization of $1.9 trillion, but the most expensive company in the world is Apple: it’s estimated at $2.3 trillion.
Largest stock exchanges
This is one of the most useful stock market facts: after all, you should definitely know which exchange is the most popular. The largest stock exchange in the world is the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with a market cap of about $23 trillion. The second largest exchange is also US-based: it’s NASDAQ, a popular platform with a market cap of $16 trillion.
Stock traders around the world
The exact number of stock traders is unknown: with the increasing number of smartphones, counting traders is now pretty difficult. However, some experts claim there are about 5 million active traders all over the world. The USA has the most stock traders, and the second most popular country is China.
