Introduction A share is a single unit of ownership in

a corporation, mutual fund, or other organization.[1] Ajoint stock company divides its capital into shares, which are offered for sale to raise capital, termed as issuing shares. Thus, a share is an indivisible unit of capital, expressing the proprietary relationship between the company and the shareholder. The denominated value of a share is its face value: the total capital of a company is divided into number of shares.[2] In financial markets, a share is a unit of account for various financial instruments includingstocks (ordinary or preferential), and investments in limited partnerships, and real estate investment trusts. The common feature of all these is equity participation (limited in the case of preference shares). The income received from shares is known as a dividend. A shareholder, also known as a stockholder, is a person who owns shares of a certain company or organization, and is thus a part-owner of the company. [3] The process of purchasing and selling shares often involves going through a stockbroker as a middle man.[4] Valuation Shares are valued according to various principles in

different markets, but a basic premise is that a share is

worth the price at which a transaction would be likely to occur were the shares to be sold. The liquidity of markets is a major consideration as to whether a share is able to be sold at any given time. An actual sale transaction of shares between buyer and seller is usually considered to provide the best prima facie market indicator as to the "true value" of shares at that particular time. Tax treatment Tax treatment of dividends varies between territories. For instance, in India, dividends are taxfree in the hands of the shareholder, but the company paying the dividend has to pay dividend distribution tax at 12.5%. There is also the concept of a deemed dividend, which is not tax free. Further, Indian tax laws include provisions to stop dividend stripping.
[5][citation needed]

Stock certificates Historically, investors were given stock certificates as

evidence of their ownership of shares. In modern times, certificates are not always given and ownership may be recorded electronically by a system such as CREST.

Stock market A stock market or equity market is a public entity (a loose network of economic transactions, not a physical facility or discrete entity) for the trading of

company stock (shares) and derivatives at an agreed price; these are securities listed on a stock exchange as well as those only traded privately. The size of the world stock market was estimated at about $36.6 trillion
[1]

at

the

beginning

of

October

2008.

The total world derivatives market has been estimated at

about $791 trillion face or nominal value, [2] 11 times the size of the entire world economy. [3] The value of the derivatives market, because it is stated in terms of notional values, cannot be directly compared to a stock or a fixed income security, which traditionally refers to an actual value. Moreover, the vast majority of derivatives 'cancel' each other out (i.e., a derivative 'bet' on an event occurring is offset by a comparable derivative 'bet' on the event notoccurring). Many such relatively illiquid securities are valued as marked to model, rather than an actual market price. The stocks are listed and traded on stock exchanges which are entities of a corporation or mutual organization specialized in the business of bringing buyers and sellers of the organizations to a listing of stocks and securities together. The largest stock market in the United States, by market capitalization, is the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). In Canada, the largest stock market is the Toronto Stock Exchange. Major European examples of stock exchanges include the Amsterdam Stock

Exchange,London

Stock

Exchange, Paris

Bourse,

and

the Deutsche Brse (Frankfurt Stock Exchange). In Africa, examples include Nigerian Stock Exchange, JSE Limited, etc. Asian examples include the Singapore Exchange, the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Stock the Hong Exchange, Kong and Stock Exchange, Stock the Shanghai the Bombay

Exchange. In Latin America, there are such exchanges as the BM&F Bovespaand the BMV. Market participants include such individual as mutual retail investors, banks,

institutional

investors

funds,

insurance companies and hedge funds, and also publicly traded corporations trading in their own shares. Some studies have suggested that institutional investors and corporations trading in their own shares generally receive higher risk-adjusted returns than retail investors Trading

The London Stock Exchange

The New York Stock Exchange Participants in the stock market range from small

individual stock investors to large hedge fund traders, who can be based anywhere. Their orders usually end up with a professional at a stock exchange, who executes the order of buying or selling. Some exchanges are physical locations where transactions are carried out on a trading floor, by a method known as open outcry. This type of auction is used in stock exchanges andcommodity exchanges where traders may enter "verbal" bids and offers simultaneously. The other type of stock exchange is a virtual kind, composed of a network of computers where trades are made electronically via traders. Actual trades are based on an auction market model where a potential buyer bids a specific price for a stock and a potential seller asks a specific price for the stock. (Buying or sellingat market means you will accept any ask price or bid price for the stock, respectively.) When the bid and ask prices match, a sale takes place, on a first-come-first-served basis if there are multiple bidders or askers at a given price.

The purpose of a stock exchange is to facilitate the exchange of securities between buyers and sellers, thus providing a marketplace (virtual or real). The exchanges provide real-time trading information on the listed securities, facilitating price discovery. The New York Stock Exchange(NYSE) is a physical exchange, also referred to as a listedexchange only stocks listed with the exchange may be traded, with a hybrid market for placing orders both electronically and manually on the trading floor. Orders executed on the trading floor enter by way of exchange members and flow down to a floor broker, who goes to the floor trading post specialist for that stock to trade the order. The specialist's job is to match buy and sell orders using open outcry. If a spread exists, no trade immediately takes placein this case the specialist should use his/her own resources (money or stock) to close the difference after his/her judged time. Once a trade has been made the details are reported on the "tape" and sent back to the brokerage firm, which then notifies the investor who placed the order. Although there is a significant amount of human contact in this process, computers play an important role, especially for so-called "program trading". The NASDAQ is a virtual listed exchange, where all of the trading is done over a computer network. The process is similar to the New York Stock Exchange. However, buyers and sellers are electronically matched. One or more

NASDAQ market makers will always provide a bid and ask price at which they will always purchase or sell 'their' stock.
[5]

The Paris Bourse, now part of Euronext, is an order-driven, electronic stock exchange. It was automated in the late 1980s. Prior to the 1980s, it consisted of an open outcry exchange. Stockbrokers met on the trading floor or the Palais Brongniart. In 1986, the CATS trading system was introduced, and the order matching process was fully automated. From time to time, active trading (especially in large blocks of securities) have moved away from the 'active' exchanges. Securities firms, led by UBS AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Cr Suisse Group, already steer 12 percent of U.S. security trades away from the exchanges to their internal systems. That share probably will increase to 18 percent by 2010 as more investment banks bypass the NYSE and NASDAQ and pair buyers and sellers of securities themselves, according to data compiled by Boston-based Aite Group LLC, a brokerage-industry consultant.[6] Now that computers have eliminated the need for trading floors house, like the Big Board's, can the balance big of power of in equity markets is shifting. By bringing more orders inwhere clients move blocks stock anonymously, brokers pay the exchanges less in fees

and capture a bigger share of the $11 billion a year that institutional investors pay in trading commissions. STOCK BROKER Similar roles of the stock broker Roles similar to that of a stockbroker include investment advisor, and financial advisor. A stockbroker may or may not be also an investment advisor, and vice versa. Acting as a principal Stockbrokers exclusively trade on their own behalf, as a principal, speculating that a share or other financial instrument will increase or decline in price. In such cases the term broker makes little sense and the individuals or firms trading in principal capacity sometimes call themselves dealers, stock traders or simply traders. There are many other types of traders within capital markets, for example trading within the foreign exchange market. Requirements Canada In Canada, stock brokers are called "Licensed

Representative" or "Investment Representative". To be licensed to trade on stock exchanges, a person must complete the Canadian Securities Course (CSC) and the Conduct & Practices Handbook (CPH). This equips an employee to trade all instruments except derivatives and

futures. To trade derivatives and futures, a person must obtain respective licensing for these instruments. Hong Kong To become a representative one has to work for a licensed firm and pass 3 exams to prove one's competency. Passing a fourth exam results in obtaining a 'specialist' license. All tests can be taken with the HKSI. However, passing all tests doesn't result in automatically obtaining the license. It still needs to be approved by the financial regulatory body. Singapore In Singapore to become a trading respresentative, you need to pass 2 exams from Institute of Banking and Financial. The 2 exams are Module 1A and Mod 6. After you pass the exams, you need to apply for the license through MAS and SGX. United Kingdom In the UK, brokers are required to pass the XII (Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment) Certificate in Securities, this qualification is achieved by passing two exams: Either Unit 1: FBI Financial regulations or Unit 10 Principles of Financial Regulation for MiFID compliant retail trading, and either Unit 2: Securities, Unit 3: Derivatives or Unit 4: for both Securities and Derivatives. Passing Unit 10 or Unit 52 identifies individuals as having attained FSA Approved Person Status.

United States While the term "stockbroker" is still in use, more common terms are "broker," "registered rep." or simply "rep." the latter being abbreviations of the official Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) designation "Registered Representative," obtained by passing the FINRA General Securities Representative Exam (also known as the "Series 7 exam") and being employed also ("associated with") a registered broker-dealer, called a brokerage firm,

typically a FINRA "member" firm. More restrictive FINRA licenses or series exams exist for brokers or reps who do not need the full array of capabilities with the Series 7 (see list of securities a variable examinations). annuity contract Variable products such as life or variable universal

insurance policy typically require the broker to also have one or another state insurance department licenses. List of Online Stock Brokers in India At present NSE has more than 345 stock brokers registered with it for stock broking business. BSE has a big list of trading members/brokers than NSE. Anyone who wants to take membership with NSE for stock broking will have to clear an online examination of NISM Capital Markets (Dealer) module apart from having other eligibility criteria detailed by NSE India. Here is the list of some famous online stock brokers in India.

If your company is not listed here, please let us know by sending an email to info@lastbull.com, we will add it here. If readers come across any new trading members/brokers you may share it with us by commenting below this post. We appreciate your support. 5paisa.com: Buy and sell shares on 5paisa.com with speeds comparable and at times better than NSEs NEAT Terminal. http://www.5paisa.com Aditya Birla Money Ltd: ABM formerly known as Apollo Sindhoori Capital Investment is a leading player in broking space since 15yrs. http://www.adityabirlamoney.com/ Advani Share Brokers: Advani Share Brokers, the reputed Bombay based investment house, operates from Indias financial hub, Dalal Street, since 60 yrs. http://www.advanishares.com/ Agroy: AFIL is the groups flagship company engaged in capital markets as a premier financial and stock broking house since 18 yrs . Anand Rathi http://www.agroy.com/ ltd: Anand Rathi Securities Securities

provides financial & advisory services including brokerage & distribution of equities, commodities supported by powerful research teams. top 5 retail http://www.rathi.com/ stock broking houses in India. Angel Trade: The Angel Group has emerged as one of the http://www.angeltrade.com/

Aracade Share & Stock brokers: Arcadia group has philosophy of client servicing backed by all principal Indian Stock and Commodity. http://www.arcadiastock.com Dalal & Broacha stock broking pvt ltd: The Company is the member of The Stock Exchange Mumbai NSE and the OTC exchange of India. http://www.dalal-broacha.com/ Dalmia Securities: Dalmia Securities (P) Ltd., is one of the market leaders in the Indian securities market. http://www.dalmiasec.com/ Emkay: Emkay is a Financial Services Company promoted and run by professionals. providing you http://www.emkayshare.com customer service. Ethical investment solutions pvt ltd: It is committed in superior http://ethical360.net Geojit Financial services ltd : Company has a network of over 300 branches in India and abroad, rendering quality equity trading services. http://www.geojit.com/ ICICI Direct : Online share and mutual funds trading facility by the ICICI group. http://www.icicidirect.com/ IL & LS Investsmart : IIL is a premier financial service organisation customised providing financial individuals and corporates with management solutions.

http://www.investsmartindia.com India Bulls : Indiabulls is Indias leading retail financial services company with 70 locations spread across 62 cities. http://www.indiabulls.com/

Indianstockmarket.net

: Indianstockmarket.net

is

an

effort to educate Indian investor by providing stock news, stock market websites, informative articles, resources to various investment guides. http://www.indianstockmarket.net/ Indira Securities: FIRM has grown from a modest stock broking firm to the current status with substantial business base Indus with Invest: INDUS stock 15 is one of yrs the well in experience. established India. http://www.indirasecurities.com/ professional broking company north

http://www.indusinvest.com InvestMentor Securites : ISL is a leading stock broker of Gujarat, India. ISL has a seat on Indias largest stock exchange. http://www.investmentoronline.com Investment Research& Information services(IRIS) : Myiris.com provides online trading service of Indian stock and mutual funds. http://www.myiris.com/ Jaypee Capital Services : It has the expertise and the experience to capitalize on daily stock movements and employ over 20 specialist traders certified by the NSE. http://www.jaypeecapital.com/index.html Khandwala securitiesLtd : Khandwala group has had over six and a half decades of experience in the financial services industry. http://www.kslinvestor.com/

Kisan Ratilal Choksey : We serve an eclectic clientele comprising High Net Worth Individuals, Corporates. http://www.krchoksey.com LKP : It is one of the most respected groups in India, offers a single window advantage to its clients for all capital and money market related activities. http://www.lkpsec.com/ Mangal Keshav : It has been a leading brokerage and advisory house offering a range of sophisticated advisory, financial trading and investment services. http://www.mangalkeshav.com Motilal Oswal: One of the top-3 stock-broking houses in India with 23 yrs experience. http://www.motilaloswal.com Mumbaibull.com : A guide to invest in Indian few nice tips to invest in India and Indian stock markets. A cautious approach for maximizing profits. http://www.mumbaibull.com/ Networth stock broking Ltd: NSBL is a member of NSE & BSE on the Capital Market and Derivatives http://www.networthstock.com/ Orient Capital Market: OCM was started 15 yrs ago with the sole aim to reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of the Broking system. Broking Company http://www.orientcapitalmarket.com/ effecting business on Indias major Pratibhuti : Pratibhuti is one of the prominent Indian stock bourses. http://www.pratibhuti.com/ segment.

RBK Share Brokers : RBK Share Broking Ltd is the member of Mumbai Stock Exchange, the premier stock exchange of India. http://www.religare.in/ Religare Securities Ltd: Religare Enterprises Limited (A Ranbaxy Promoter Group Company) provides integrated financial solutions to its corporate, retail and wealth management clients. http://www.religare.in/ Share Khan : Sharekhan brings to you a user- friendly online trading facility, coupled with a wealth of content that will help you stalk the right shares. http://www.sharekhan.com Sivan securities : Sivan is one of the leading Indian Investment Banker & Stock Broker with a strategic focus on South India. Toss comes http://members.tripod.com/~sivansec/ services : Toss of strives for absolute interest. financial to

professionalism and high degree ethical standards when it the question clients http://www.tossfinance.com UTI Securities : UTISEL was promoted as an independant professional entity in 06/94 by UTI. the entire share capital of UTISEL is now held by Administrator of Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India since 02/03. http://www.utisel.com/ Latin Manharlal: Latin Manharlal has grown over a period in experience and serving ever growing clientele in the Capital Market and F&O Segment. The company is a Trading and Clearing Member Broker registered with both the

exchanges (BSE/NSE) Under Cash, F&O Segments and Registered Trading Member under Currency Derivative Segment. http://www.latinmanharlal.com/