Stock Exchange

Essentially, stock exchange is when a company sells small parts of it for people to invest in. Once the market opens each day, stock investors can trade stocks and/or sell them depending on if they are making profit or not.
So, what causes stock prices to increase or decrease? To name a few...
- Decrease in interest rates - when a bank says they will decrease interest rates, more people will have the incentive to buy because they can borrow more money. Therefore buying stocks in companies will increase.
- Overall fall in economy of a country - For example, if Germany's economy were to fail tomorrow, German stocks will fall because predicted trades will tell how much German companies will make.
- Trends in company profit. When word goes out that a company has made a lot of money, both in the short run and long run, people will invest in stocks for that company.