- Many large businesses have begun to take advantage of private exchanges when they need to raise money. It is possible to sell ownership shares on these exchanges without being subject to the same swings in value that might accompany issuing shares on a public exchange. The buyers on these private exchanges tend to be large financial institutions capable of taking on a high degree of risk so long as high rewards are offered.
- The well known public stock exchanges have typically been established for quite some time. The older stock exchanges, such as the London Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, have a history going back centuries. Newer, alternative exchanges have been created with the goal of serving those businesses more likely to be excluded by the rules of the famous exchanges. These alternative exchanges have a lower regulatory burden and laxer rules for membership.
- While they are not selling ownership in any particular company, many prediction markets have been created in recent years that offer themselves up as a kind of alternative stock market. Investors are able to place money on certain outcomes and if their predictions prove true they receive significant financial rewards from out of the money that other investors have contributed. This is a way of harnessing the predicting power of stock markets to non-economic events.
- Though it's likely that many alternatives to the well known public exchanges will continue to be created, there are few options available to the average investor that offer returns comparable to the traditional stock market. As long as the public stock exchanges continue to provide investors with the same high rate of long-term growth, they will continue to be the main avenue of investment, making stock alternatives only a niche product for the few.
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