Market:

A market is any one of a variety of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange i.e. a public place where buyers and sellers make transactions, directly or via intermediaries. A market is an environment that allows buyers and sellers to trade or exchange goods, services, and information. Some markets are very competitive, with a number of vendors selling the same kinds of products or services. Conversely, some markets have low or no competition, particularly if the industry is protected by government legislation. For a market to be competitive, there must be more than a single buyer or seller. It has been suggested that two people may trade, but it takes at least three persons to have a market, so that there is competition on at least one of its two sides. However, competitive markets rely on much larger numbers of both buyers and sellers. Market size can be given in terms of the number of buyers and sellers in a particular market or in terms of the total exchange of money in the market, generally annually (per year). When given in terms of money, market size is often termed market value, but in a distinguished sense than the market value of individual products. For one and the same goods, there may be different (and generally increasing) market values at the production level, the wholesale level and the retail level.

Key Players Of Market:

Markets are dependent on two major participants buyers and sellers. Buyers and sellers typically trade goods, services and/ or information. Historically, markets were physical meeting places where buyers and sellers gathered together to trade. Although physical markets are still vital, virtual marketplaces supported by IT networks such as the internet have become the largest and most liquid. The number of buyers and sellers involved will have a direct bearing on the price of the good or service to be sold, and has become known as the law of supply and demand. Where there are more sellers than buyers, the availability of supply will push down prices. If there are more buyers than sellers, the increased demand will push up prices.

Types Of Market:
Although many markets exist in the traditional sense such as a marketplace there are various other types of markets and various organizational structures to assist their functions. The nature of business transactions could define markets. Financial Markets Financial markets facilitate the exchange of liquid assets. Futures markets, where contracts are exchanged regarding the future delivery of goods are often an outgrowth of general commodity markets. Currency Markets The currency markets are the largest continuously traded markets in the world. Twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, governments, banks, investors and consumers are buying and selling every currency, leading to massive money flows constantly changing hands. Stock Markets Stock markets have become highly complex markets that allow investors to buy shares in companies or in funds that aggregate companies or industries together. Most stock markets today are primarily electronic networks, although they often maintain a physical location for buyers, sellers and market makers to interact directly.

Key Players Of Financial Market

As the capital market is the place where the supply of capital, provided by investors, meets demand, coming from issuers, as an initial approach capital market players can be broken down into the following three main categories: Issuers Investors Intermediaries

With regard to the role played by intermediaries, that of facilitating contact between investors and issuers, economic theory distinguishes between financing provided through bank loans, socalled "intermediated" financing, to financing through the issuance of securities, "disintermediated" financing. In the first case (intermediated financing), the resources of agents with a financing capacity (deposits, in particular from households) are made available via banks to agents with financing requirements (companies). The crucial role of banks in this regard is to enable the short-term time horizon of the first group to be transformed into the long-term time horizon (investment) of the latter. In the second case, agents with financing requirements capture public savings directly through the issuance of securities (stocks and bonds), which are acquired by agents with financing capacity. The description "disintermediated" used for this form of financing is somewhat misleading as intermediaries operating in this second situation are in fact more numerous and diverse than in the previous case, and once again the banks play a central role.

Instruments Of Financial Market

Money market instruments Call/Notice Money Treasury Bills Term Money Certificate of Deposit Commercial Papers Capital market instruments The capital market generally consists of the following long term period i.e., more than one year period, financial instruments; In the equity segment Equity shares, preference shares, convertible preference shares, non-convertible preference shares etc and in the debt segment debentures, zero coupon bonds, deep discount bonds etc. Hybrid instruments Hybrid instruments have both the features of equity and debenture.

This kind of instruments is called as hybrid instruments. Examples areconvertible debentures, warrants etc. Consumer Markets Markets originally started as marketplaces usually in the center of villages and towns, for the sale or barter of farm produce, clothing and tools. These kinds of street markets developed into a whole variety of consumer-oriented markets, such as specialist markets, shopping centers, supermarkets, or even virtual markets such as eBay. Commodity Markets Commodity markets are markets where raw or primary products are exchanged. These raw commodities are traded on regulated commodities exchanges, in which they are bought and sold in standardized contracts. Commodity markets include: energy (oil, gas, coal and increasingly renewable energy sources such as biodiesel), soft commodities and grains (wheat, oat, corn, rice, soya beans, coffee, cocoa, sugar, cotton, frozen orange juice, etc), meat, and financial commodities such as bonds. Capital Goods & Industrial Markets Capital goods markets help businesses to buy durable goods to be used in industrial and manufacturing processes. A number of services can also be associated with these goods. Transactions tend to be wholesale with large quantities of goods being transacted at low prices.