What gets traded: five kinds of assets

• StocksStocksA share in a company; the price depends on how the business is doing.In the glossary → are shares in companies: Apple, Tesla, Coca-Cola. When a company earns more, its stock usually gets more expensive.
• CurrenciesCurrencies, forexThe market for exchanging currencies, where an instrument trades as a pair: buying one currency, a participant sells the other at the same time, and the result of the trade is decided by the change in the rate between thIn the glossary → are the dollar, the euro, the pound, the yen. You've seen exchangeExchangeThe venue where the orders of buyers and sellers meet and the price is formed.In the glossary → rates change at a currency exchange booth: today the euro costs more, tomorrow less. The currency market is called forexCurrencies, forexThe market for exchanging currencies, where an instrument trades as a pair: buying one currency, a participant sells the other at the same time, and the result of the trade is decided by the change in the rate between thIn the glossary →.
• CommoditiesCommoditiesRaw materials and produce traded on exchanges — oil, gas, gold, grain; gold is often called a safe-haven asset.In the glossary → are what everything is made from: gold, oil, gasNetwork fee, gasThe charge for recording a transfer on the blockchain, paid to those who run the network rather than to an exchange; on the Ethereum network it is called gas, and it rises when the network is congested.In the glossary →, wheat. When oil gets more expensive, so does gas at the pump.
• IndicesIndicesA single number that shows how the prices of a whole group of companies move on average: the S&P 500 tracks the 500 largest US companies.In the glossary → are a single number that shows how a whole group of companies is doing. The best known is the S&P 500, made up of the 500 largest US companies. When the index rises, it means those companies are, on average, getting more expensive.
• Cryptocurrencies are digital money: bitcoinBitcoinThe first and best-known cryptocurrency: no company or country stands behind it, and its price easily moves 3–4% in a day.In the glossary →, ether. No company or country stands behind them. The price rests only on how many people want to buy, so it jumps around more than anything else.

Each of these assetsAssetAnything that trades: a share of a company, a currency, an ounce of gold, a digital coin.In the glossary → can be traded. But there are two ways to do it, and the next lessons are about them.