A stock exchange makes money by operating as a high-tech marketplace, charging fees for the services it provides to participants who want to buy, sell, or list securities. The primary revenue stream comes from trading fees, often referred to as transaction fees, which are charged to market makers and brokerages for every trade executed on their platform. Additionally, exchanges earn significant revenue through listing fees, which companies pay to have their stock publicly traded on the exchange; these include both initial fees for the IPO and annual recurring fees for continued listing compliance. Another major source of income is the sale of market data—selling real-time price, volume, and depth-of-market information to financial institutions, algorithmic traders, and software providers who require immediate data to make informed investment decisions. Exchanges also offer technology and connectivity services, charging firms for high-speed, low-latency access to their servers (co-location services) and for proprietary software that manages trade settlement and risk assessment. By providing a secure, transparent, and regulated environment for capital to change hands, the stock exchange captures a small fraction of the massive daily trading volume in the form of fees, creating a highly profitable, scalable model that sustains the global financial infrastructure.