A share of stock represents equity ownership in a company. It entitles the owner to certain dividend and voting rights. The specialist is a dealer who makes a market in one or a few particular stocks. The organized exchanges may be national, e.g., the New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange , or they may be regional, e.g., the Philadelphia Exchange or the Pacific Exchange. The OTC is a negotiated market with no central location.
Dealers deal directly with each other through the network.
The dealer's profit is the spread which is equal to the difference between the asked and bid prices. NASD also regulates and polices trading in OTC stocks. A future is an obligation to buy or sell a fixed quantity of the underlying asset at a certain price for a specified period of time. Investors can trade futures on commodities, food items, currencies, financial instruments, and financial indexes. An option is the right to buy or sell a fixed quantity of the underlying asset at a set price within a certain period of time.