A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social r elations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange.

While parties m ay exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services (including labor) in exchange for money from buyers. It can be said that a market is the process in which the prices of goods and servic es are established. For a market to be competitive, there must be more than a single buyer or seller . It has been suggested that two people may trade, but it takes at least three p ersons to have a market, so that there is competition on at least one of its two sides.[1] However, competitive markets rely on much larger numbers of both buye rs and sellers. A market with single seller and multiple buyers is a monopoly. A market with a single buyer and multiple sellers is a monopsony. These are the e xtremes of imperfect competition. Markets vary in form, scale (volume and geographic reach), location, and types o f participants, as well as the types of goods and services traded. Examples incl ude: Physical retail markets, such as local farmers' markets (which are usually held in town squares or parking lots on an ongoing or occasional basis), shopping cen ters and shopping malls (Non-physical) internet markets (see electronic commerce) Ad hoc auction markets Markets for intermediate goods used in production of other goods and services Labor markets International currency and commodity markets Stock markets, for the exchange of shares in corporations Artificial markets created by regulation to exchange rights for derivatives that have been designed to ameliorate externalities, such as pollution permits (see carbon trading) Illegal markets such as the market for illicit drugs, arms or pirated products In mainstream economics, the concept of a market is any structure that allows bu yers and sellers to exchange any type of goods, services and information. The ex change of goods or services for money is a transaction. Market participants cons ist of all the buyers and sellers of a good who influence its price. This influe nce is a major study of economics and has given rise to several theories and mod els concerning the basic market forces of supply and demand. There are two roles in markets, buyers and sellers. The market facilitates trade and enables the di stribution and allocation of resources in a society. Markets allow any tradable item to be evaluated and priced. A market emerges more or less spontaneously or is constructed deliberately by human interaction in order to enable the exchange of rights (cf. ownership) of services and goods.