Whats this share/stock market?

A stock market is a place which provides "trading" facilities for stock brokers and traders to trade stocks and other securities.It also facilitates issue and redemption of securities as well.The securities traded on a stock exchange include shares issued by companies, unit trusts, derivatives, pooled investment products and bonds.To be able to trade a security on a certain stock exchange, a company has to be listed there.The typical roles of a stock exchange are: 1)Raising capital for businesses 2)Mobilizing savings for investment 3)Facilitating company growth 4)Profit Sharing 5)Corporate Governance 6)Creating investment opportunities for small investors 7)Government capital raising for development projects 8)Barometer of the economy The major stock exchanges in the world are:NYSE(US),NASDAQ(US),BSE(India),NSE(India),LSE(UK),Shanghai Stock Exchange(China)etc.

The stock market is like a store that sells a company's "stock" and each stock has a value. When the company does good the stock goes up and vice-versa. But it is a very risky way of making a living. If you are looking for a good and long investment, trying STEM. For a short and quick, try APPLE.

You can get info about shares from sites like digitallook, motley fool, yahoo finance etc and by visiting the investor relations page on the website of any business you are looking at. You can also order free annual reports from precision alert. If you are not confident about stock picking you could buy everything using an ETF, on average shares beat other investments so accepting an average performance is not bad compared to not investing at all.