Secondary market
Principles of Finance glossary · Financial Statements, Markets & Working Capital
Definition
The market in which previously issued securities trade among investors.
Secondary market in plain English
The secondary market is where investors buy and sell securities from EACH OTHER, after the company first sold them. When a company originally issues stock, the money goes to the company; but every trade after that is just one investor handing shares to another, with the company not involved. It's exactly like buying a used phone on a resale app — the manufacturer already got paid at the original sale, and now the price is set purely by what buyers and sellers agree on. This is what people usually mean by 'the stock market' day to day.
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