Stock market---the very word sets many a million hearts racing with increased flow of adrenalin. Stock market is a public market and is a medium for buying and selling of company stocks. This business of trading in stocks can bring about a huge profit for the individuals staking large amounts on stock with a view to incur huge profits as the stock price increases and they are able to sell off their stocks at the increased price.

We find novices staking their life's income and wise young service holders risking huge sums in the stock market with the sole intention of doubling and tripling their money. Stock market is looked upon as a medium of incurring monetary gains in an easy way. But obviously, what people tend to forget is that it is a very volatile market and it is very much susceptible to the economic ups and downs; and putting money in the stock market is no less than a gamble involving unprecedented risks.

Stocks are traded and trading information is distributed by professionals through stock exchanges. These stock exchanges thus can be labeled as market places facilitating the exchange of securities and providing real time stock prices. These markets can be real or virtual. The New York Stock Exchange is a good example of a physical exchange while NASDAQ is an example of virtual listed exchange.

A few years ago, stock markets did not enjoy this inadvertent popularity as it does today. Somehow the global economy has played a vital role in calling a considerable amount of attention for the stock market concept. Now you would find stock traders in almost every nook and corner; be it a metropolitan or a small sleepy township; be it an MNC employee earning in lakhs per month or a petty government service holder struggling to make two ends meet; whether a retired professional investing huge amount of time and effort in studying the market upheavals or full-time workers hooked on to computers busily e-trading via Internet even during peak office hours.

Nowadays, you will find mobile alerts with trading advice in individual's cell phones every morning as soon as the stock market opens, you will also find banks facilitating the opening of d-mat accounts for its clients through which you can trade in stocks, also special TV channels dedicated to market studies and even financial experts airing special programs guiding the laymen as to which company shares should be given priority over which others.

Recently, there had been quite a bit of hue and cry over market collapse and sudden economic crash resulting in huge fall in stock prices and shares nose-diving underwater. Millions of people lost huge sums of money. But it is heartening to see that the economy is reviving and stock markets are coming back to life, gradually. The present scenario spells a bit of stability for the stock market. But while the stock market is still recuperating from its shocking crash, the stock holders are still going through a wary phase and are even now pretty much unsure about whether to put in more money in stocks, and are also uncertain about issues like where to put their money and how much to put.

In other words, the stock market concept, with all its pros and cons, have successfully extended its fangs in almost every household and is luring more and more people into its grip everyday by extending a tantalizing feel of generating easy money.