When getting involved in the Stock Market, the three markets to know and understand are the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ) and the American Stock Exchange (AMEX).

According to investinganswers.com, the NYSE is oldest and largest stock exchange in the United States. Located in New York, the NYSE is a collection of domestic and foreign securities, including stocks, bonds and other investments traded in a public market for investors to buy and sell.

According to nasdaq.com, the NASDAQ is the first large electronic stock market. It is made up of two separate markets, the NASDAQ National Market, which trades large, active securities and the NASDAQ Smallcap Market that trades emerging growth companies.

According to investopedia-amex.com, the AMEX has been known as the third largest exchange in the United States handling about 10% of all traded securities. Now known as the NYSE American it mainly handles the trading of small-cap stocks, derivatives and ETF’s.

The U.S. stock market was down 3% on December 4th with the Dow dropping over 800 points. The Market recently has been dropping, partly due to the U.S. and China Trade Agreement lasting longer than expected.

Investors are worried that the U.S. and China Trade Agreement may be more difficult than they originally thought which affects the economy negatively.

This, at a time when signs of recession may be near have induced many to sell their stocks. On top of this, many experts predict interest rates will gradually move higher which further slows down economic growth.

What does this market need to reverse this downtrend?

Stable Interest Rates, A final agreement between U.S. & China, and for investor accountability to improve.