when companies are born they are private companies and after a certain time they go through an initial public offering ipo which is a process that turns them into public companies traded on a stock exchange private stocks operate slightly differently as they are only offered to employees and certain investors 
some of the largest equity markets or stock markets in the world are the new york stock exchange nasdaq tokyo stock exchange shanghai stock exchange and euronext europe companies list their stocks on an exchange as a way to obtain capital to grow their business an equity market is a form of equity financing in which a company gives up a certain percentage of ownership in exchange for capital that capital is then used for a variety of business needs equity financing is the opposite of debt financing which utilizes loans and other forms of borrowing to obtain capital trading in an equity marketin the equity market investors bid for stocks by offering a certain price and sellers ask for a specific price when these two prices match a sale occurs often there are many investors bidding on the same stock when this occurs the first investor to place the bid is the first to get the stock when a buyer will pay any price for the stock they are buying at market value similarly when a seller will take any price for the stock they are selling at market value 