market capitalization (market cap)

1. On-going market valuation of a public firm (whose shares are publicly traded) computed by multiplying the number of outstanding shares (held by the shareholders) with the current per share market price. It is, however, not necessarily the price a buyer would pay for the entire firm. And is not a realistic estimate of the firm's actual size, because a share's market price is based on trading in only a fraction of the firm's total outstanding shares.

2. Sum of the current market value of all securities traded on a financial market.