A Stock Exchange is a marketplace for the purchase and sale of commercial goods like bonds, stocks, and securities. Modern exchanges have come to opt for electronic trading venues – dark pools, communication networks, etc. – in lieu of traditional floor, exchanges to save time and money. Buyers and sellers experience profit or loss in trading depending on whether the market is bull or bear, respectively.
Being the financial capital of the US, Wall Street is a deterministic force in the world economy. New York City houses two of the biggest stock exchanges in the world. The first, the New York Stock Exchange (founded 1792 and owned by Intercontinental Exchange) leads in trade value and has a capitalization of $19.223 trillion USD. The NYSE has borne witness to some prominent market events such as the 1929 Wall Street Crash, the 1997 mini-crash, and the 1987 Black Tuesday. The second major stock exchange, NASDAQ (founded 1971 and owned by NASDAQ Inc.) has a capitalization of $6.831 trillion USD and pioneered electronic systems in trading. Another stock market giant is TMX Group in Canada (founded 2008). With a capitalization of $ 1.939 trillion, it owns Montreal Exchange, NGX, TSX Alpha Exchange, among other notable exchanges.
In Asia, a prominent hub of trading is the Japan Exchange Group (founded 2013) with a capitalization of $4.485 trillion, the Shanghai Stock Exchange (founded 1904, the first stock exchange in China) with a market capitalization of $3.986 trillion, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with a capitalization of $3.325 trillion, and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China with a capitalization of $2.285 trillion. Witnessing some major events in trading, these still remain some of the major stock exchanges in the world.
Europe is also home to some major exchanges such as the London Stock Exchange in the UK (founded 1801; $6.187 trillion capitalizations), Euronext in the UK, Belgium, Portugal, France, and the Netherlands (founded 2000, $3.321 trillion capitalizations), and the Deutsche Borse AG in Germany (founded 1992; $1.762 trillion capitalization).
These exchange centers of the world act as a measuring stick of development and help predict the direction of national economic growth. The major exchanges fund development projects for economies worldwide, especially in developing nations whose stock exchanges are still in their growing phase. The growth of financial markets offers higher standards of living, employment opportunities, and also help fund the growth of other nations worldwide thereby bringing down rates of poverty and illiteracy.