World Stock Exchanges

Get quick access to the top exchanges


Money moves the world and is assisted with the help of stock exchanges. All over the world people can buy and sell stocks. In most countries, an exchange is used to facilitate the transfer of stocks from companies to individuals or from individuals to individuals. For the price of a commission, generally paid to both the stock broker and exchange house you can purchase a stock. Shares of companies are generally distributed through these types of businesses. Below is a list of the most popular exchanges.

The North American Exchanges

The largest stock market in the world is located in New York City in the state of New York. This bustling city of approximately 8 million people is the largest city in the United States and also home of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) which is located at 11 Wall Street, NASDAQ located at One Liberty Plaza, 165 Broadway and American Exchange which is located at 86 Trinity Place. They are open from 9:30 to 16:00 Eastern Standard Time. By market capitalization, the NYSE is about four times as big as the NASDAQ while the AMEX is extremely small. In general, the NYSE handles mostly large well established companies, the NASDAQ's forte is technology companies while the AMEX specializes in exchange traded funds (ETF) and options. If you are interested in traveling to New York check out the New York Tourist Information Center for things to do.

The Canadian stock exchange are controlled by the TSX Group which operates the Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto stock exchanges. The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) located at 130 King Street W in Toronto, Ontario is the largest Canadian exchange and most of the large Canadian companies are traded here. The Montreal exchange is located at 800 Victoria Square in Montreal and handles options while the Vancouver Venture Exchange is located at 650 Georgia St W, in Vancouver and handles the small start up companies who mainly operate in the mining and oil and gas areas. If you want to play the penny mining stocks then the Vancouver exchange is for you. These exchanges are open from 9:30 to 16:00 Eastern Standard Time.

European Exchanges

All of the main countries in Europe have their own stock markets however, only the top three will be discussed here.

The London Stock Exchange is the largest exchange in Europe and is located at 10 Paternoster Square, London which is the capital of England. The exchange is open for trading from 8:00 to 16:30 local time, Monday to Friday. If you are interested in visiting the exchange while visiting London, you can pick up tourist information at the London Tourist Center.

Euronext is now a subsidiary of the NYSE but it began life in 2000 as a merger of the exchanges of Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris. Later the exchange located in Portugal was added. The Euronext group of stock exchanges appears to be on the road to becoming the first group of exchanges which will be truly global in operation. The Euronext is open for trading from 9 to 5:30 CET Monday to Friday.

The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is the largest exchange in Germany and is located in Frankfurt. This exchange handles about 90% of the German trading activity. The Frankfurt Exchange is operated by the Deutsche Börse AG. The trading hours for the Frankfurt Exchange are from 9 to 5:30 CET Monday to Friday. If you are interested in visiting Frankfurt, considered to be the financial capital of Germany and hosting the largest airport in main land Europe.

Asia and Pacific Rim Countries

These exchanges are dominated by the Japanese stock markets. The most populous countries in the world, China and India at the moment have relatively small exchanges. The largest Chinese exchange, the Shanghai Exchange is located in Shanghai. Indian has two main stock markets which are similar in size. The National Exchange of India is located in Mumbai. The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) is also located in Mumbai. The health of the BSE can be easily seen by following the SENSEX index.

Japan has two major exchanges, the largest is the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) is located at 2-1 Nihombashi Kabutocho, Chuo-ku Tokyo. The main index of the TSE is the Nikkei index which is one of the major world indexes. The TSE offers a split trading session. The morning session allows for trading between 09:00 to 11:00 while the second trading session is open from 12:30 to 15:00 local time.

The second largest market in Japan is the Osaka Securities Exchange located at 8-16, Kitahama 1-chome, Chuo-ku, Osaka 541-0041 JAPAN. This exchange provides markets for equities, futures, and options. Both of these exchanges are now under the Japan Exchange Group.

Two other top Asian or South Pacific area exchanges are the Hong Kong stock market whose main index is the Hang Seng and the Australian Stock Market.

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