Most people invest in stocks without knowing the fundamental difference between the two exchanges their money flows through.
NYSE is an auction market — your order competes directly with other buyers and sellers. Founded 1792 under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street.
NASDAQ is a dealer market — you trade with a market maker directly. ~14 competing market makers per stock. Founded 1971 as the world's first fully electronic exchange.
The result? NASDAQ's bid-ask spreads are 12% narrower than NYSE. Faster execution, more liquid.
But NYSE has something money can't easily buy — 234 years of prestige. That's why Oracle paid 5x higher listing fees to move FROM NASDAQ TO NYSE in 2013. Pure brand value.
Meanwhile PepsiCo moved the opposite direction — from NYSE to NASDAQ after nearly 100 years — to cut costs and align with a tech-forward identity.
Combined they hold $78 trillion in market value. The largest concentration of capital in human history.