Financial Markets Primer

Asking what the market did today is a common question, but in this case the market is really referencing a single equity index, which is usually the S&P 500. While the S&P 500 is a significant index it is only a single index within an economy that has multiple markets, and each market operates in different ways. A market, by definition, is a trading place where a buyer and seller exchange goods and services, and it could be a physical market or an online market. Because the definition is so broad, the balance of this article addresses financial markets: equity markets, debt markets, derivative markets and money markets.