DEFINITION of 'Market Value'
The price an asset would fetch in the marketplace. Market value is also commonly used to refer to the market capitalization of a publicly-traded company, and is obtained by multiplying the number of its outstanding shares by the current share price. Market value is easiest to determine for exchange-traded instruments such as stocks and futures, since their market prices are widely disseminated and easily available, but is a little more challenging to ascertain for over-the-counter instruments like fixed income securities. However, the greatest difficulty in determining market value lies in estimating the value of illiquid assets like real estate and businesses, which may necessitate the use of real estate appraisers and business valuation experts respectively.
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