Trading stocks involves buying and selling shares of publicly traded companies on stock exchanges. Stocks represent ownership in a company and entitle shareholders to a portion of the company’s assets and profits.

Here’s a brief overview of trading stocks:

1. Stock Exchanges: Stocks are traded on organized marketplaces called stock exchanges. Some of the well-known stock exchanges include the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), NASDAQ, London Stock Exchange (LSE), Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), and many others.

2. Stock Symbols: Each publicly traded company is assigned a unique stock symbol, which is used to identify and trade its shares on the stock exchange.

3. Buy (Long) and Sell (Short): Traders can buy stocks to hold them for the long term, expecting their value to increase over time (going long). 

4. Market Orders and Limit Orders: Traders can place market orders to buy or sell a stock at the prevailing market price. 

5. Day Trading vs. Swing Trading vs. Investing: Traders can have different time horizons. Day traders buy and sell stocks within the same trading day, while swing traders hold positions for several days to weeks. 

6. Risks and Rewards: Stock trading carries inherent risks due to market volatility, economic factors, and company-specific developments. 

7. Fundamental and Technical Analysis: Traders use various methods to analyze stocks.