The stock market is an essential part of a free market economy, like the American one. This is because it provides companies with the capital they need in exchange for giving investors small portions of ownership of their company. The stock market works by allowing different companies to sell shares to earn capital, which means they sell shares of their company through a trading system to earn more money. Stocks represent a small ownership stake in a company. The more shares a person owns, the more ownership of that company they will have. Stocks also represent shares in a company, which are equal shares into which the company's capital is divided, entitling a shareholder to a share of the company's profits. Finally, all stock purchases and sales occur on the stock exchange. A stock exchange is a system or market where shares can be bought and sold within or between countries. All these aspects together create the stock market. The largest exchanges are the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ. The New York Stock Exchange is a large building in Lower Manhattan that conducts auction-style trading with lots of face-to-face interactions through specialists, brokers and buyers. In this exchange there are upper floors where specialists determine the prices of all shares. This information then travels to brokers who run face-to-face auctions with buyers to sell the shares. The largest American companies, such as Coca-Cola and McDonald's, sell their shares through this exchange. The NASDAQ is a virtual stock exchange with no physical buildings. This exchange was created in the 1970s but began to thrive during the tech boom of the 1990s. The tech boom has helped this exchange become home to more middle-of-the-paper tech companies, and trading on Amazon.com could be advantageous because everything the company offers applies to a large number of people. This gives the company a great ability to grow with the times and ensure that its services remain in high demand, this is demonstrated through the almost constant increase in shares. Facebook could be a good choice to invest in simply because of its popularity among the people who use it. The stock has shown a steady rise for a while and I don't see its popularity declining in the immediate future, which would make for a good investment. Overall, you can never be sure of the best stocks to invest in because the stock market can change at a moment's notice. However, by using the best strategies available to choose your own stocks and of course, with a little luck, owning stocks in the stock market can be a very financially advantageous decision for anyone investing..