What is Market Capitalization?
Published Wednesday, September 14, 2022 by TradingHours.com
Overview
What is Market Cap of Market Capitalization? Market Cap is equal to the total number of shares times the price of a share. Individual stocks can have a market cap and entire stock exchanges can have a market cap. In the case of an individual stock, all stocks cost the same amount so the equation is very simply. In the case of an entire stock exchange, there are different prices for different stocks. To find the Market Cap of an entire stock exchange, like the New York Stock Exchange, you have to sum the market cap of all individual stocks trading in that exchange.
There is no difference between "Market Cap" and "Market Capitalization." Market Cap is simply an abbreviation.
Equation for Market Cap
Market Capitalization = # of Shares x Share Price
Interpreting Market Cap
There are 16 Stock Exchanges with a Market Cap of over $1 Trillion. Of the 70+ stock exchanges we track on this site, the market with the highest Market Cap is the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with a capitalization of over $18 Trillion USD. The markets with the two highest capitalizations are the NYSE and NASDAQ – both located in the United States.
The lowest market belong to the Beirut Stock Exchange and the Bahrain Bourse with market caps of $11.5 Billion USD and 17.9 Billion USD, respectively.
Note that all Market Capitalizations have been converted to USD even though most exchanges outside of the United States do not use the US Dollar to price shares.