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In general parlance, a market is a location where those willing to pay a price for something meet those willing to sell it. In marketing, a market is the sum total of potential buyers of a product.

In economics, a market is a mechanism which allows people to trade, normally governed by the theory of supply and demand, and thereby allocates resources through a price mechanism. It typically involves a bid and ask process.

Both general markets (where many commodities are traded) and specialised markets (where only one commodity is traded) exist. Markets work by placing many interested sellers in one "place", thus making them easier to find for prospective buyers. An economy which relies primarily on interactions between buyers and sellers to allocate resources is known as a market economy in contrast either to a command economy or to a non-market economy that is based, e.g., on gifts.

Contents 1 Marketplaces and street markets 2 Wholesale markets 3 See also 4 Economic markets and marketspaces 5 See also

Marketplaces and street markets

A marketplace is a location where goods and services are exchanged. The traditional market square is a city square where traders set up stalls and buyers browse the merchandise. This kind of market is very old, and countless such markets are still in operation around the whole world.

• In the USA such markets fell out of favor, but renewed interest in local food has cause the reinvention of this type of market, called farmers' markets, in many towns and cities.
• In continental Europe, especially in France, street markets, as well as "marketplaces" (covered places where merchants have stalls, but not entire stores) are commonplace. Both resellers and producers sell their wares to the public.
• Markets are often temporary, with stalls only present for one or two days a week ("market days"), however some (such as Camden Market in London, UK) are open every day of the week. Such markets are normally specialist—the various stalls of Camden Market, along with the shops associated with it, sell a variety of alternative lifestyle products ranging from clothes and jewellery to CDs, instruments and furniture. An example of a large market is Chatuchak weekend market in Bangkok.

The Roman term for market, still in use in a related sense, is forum. The modern shopping mall can be seen as an extension of this concept.

Wholesale markets

A wholesale market is a market which primarily sells to traders such as caterers and small shopkeepers, rather than to members of the public, although members of the public are not necessarily excluded. London, England has several centuries old wholesale markets such as Smithfield Market and Billingsgate Fish Market.

See also

• Bazaar
• Souk
• Street market
• Roman Forum
• Market town

Economic markets and marketspaces

In modern times, mainly after the invention of the electronic computer, markets are not always located in a physical space. Such virtual markets consist of communication paths where information exchange is easy and deals may be struck. These are often called marketspaces. A notable example of this is the international currency market. The e-Bay web site can also be considered a marketspace.

See also

• Market economy
• Market anomaly
• Market leader
• Financial market
• Media market
• Marketing

This article is based on the article "Markets" from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License. Here you find the list of authors of this article. The article can only edited within Wikipedia. Edit this article in Wikipedia.

"Invest" redirects here. For other uses, see Invest (disambiguation).

Investment or investing¹ is a term with several closely-related meanings in finance and economics. It refers to the accumulation of some kind of asset in hopes of getting a future return from it. Technically, the word means the "action of putting something in to somewhere else" (perhaps originally related to a person's garment or 'vestment').

Contents 1 Types of investment 2 See also 3 Notes 4 External links

Types of investment

• In theoretical economics, investment means the purchase (and thus the production) of capital goods - goods which are not consumed but instead used in future production. Examples include building a railroad, or a factory, clearing land, or putting oneself through college. In a stricter sense, investment is also a component of GDP given in the formula GDP = C + I + G + NX. The investment function in that aspect is divided into non-residential investment (such as factories, machinery etc) and residental investment (new houses). Investment is a function of income and interest rates, given by the relation I = (Y, i). An increase in income will encourage higher investment, whereas a higher interest rate will discourage investment as it becomes costlier to borrow money. Even if a firm chooses to use its own funds in an investment, the interest rate represents an opportunity cost of investing those funds rather than loaning them out for interest.

• In finance, investment means buying securities or other monetary or paper assets. Valuation is the method for assessing whether a potential investment is worth its price. Types of investments include equity investment or real estate investment, foreign currencies or bonds or postage stamps. These investments may then provide future cash flows and may increase or decrease in value. In the stock markets it is performed by the stock investors.

• Collective investment schemes encourage investors to purchase securities by marketing the merits of investment.

• Investment clubs are groups of individuals who meet on a regular basis for the purpose of investing money, most often in stocks and other publicly-traded securities. Various online communities devoted to this type of investing have recently emerged and have contributed to the personal investing boom in the United States.

See also

• Appreciation
• Capital accumulation
• Divestment
• Factor Models
• Financial economics
• Foreign Direct Investment
• Gold as an investment
• Investor profile
• Investor relations
• Over-investing
• Philatelic investment
• Regulation FD
• Return on investment
• Saving (economics)
• Speculation
• Stock investor
• Trend
• Socially responsible investing
• Ethical investing
• National association of investors corporation

List of Marketing Topics	List of Management Topics
List of Economics Topics	List of Accounting Topics
List of Finance Topics	List of Economists

Notes

Note 1: UK and U.S. English, respectively.

External links

• Investing textbook - in Wikibooks
• Financial Times
• Wall Street Journal
• Yahoo! Finance
• Investopedia

This article is based on the article "Investments" from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License. Here you find the list of authors of this article. The article can only edited within Wikipedia. Edit this article in Wikipedia.