World Stock Markets

At the beginning of October, 2008, the value of the stock market worldwide was estimated to be right around $36.6 trillion. From Algeria to Zimbabwe, transactions and stock trades are going on around the world at more than 105 stock exchanges.

Actually, these stock exchanges are located in all of the significant financial hubs worldwide. For example, Frankfurt, London, and Tokyo all have huge stock exchanges, and of course the New York Stock exchange, which has been open for business since 1792 has a massive trading volume (in 1998, it reached about $7.3 trillion).

Also, an inter-European stock exchange called Euronext merged with the New York Stock Exchange in 2007 and it has locations in Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam, among other places.

Basically, these stock exchanges located worldwide help give investors a ready and centralized place to exchange their securities. Also, stock exchanges may help fund a business by a process called flotation of stocks and bonds. But one must be careful with this system--speculation in stocks may make the economy seem less stable. Remember that in 1929, the stock market crash was a key part of the Great Depression.

Rules and regulations govern the interstate sale of certain stock exchange practices and securities. The Securities and Exchange Commission oversees everything. These days, a significant amount of stocks are traded through what are called "over-the-counter" groups like Nasdaq Europe and Nasdaq. Through organizations like these, a lot of securities not listed on a more significant or well-known stock exchange can be traded by financial dealers by way of telecommunications or computers.

Nasdaq had a very good track record; for example, in1994, it beat the New York Stock Exchange on annual share volume. Nasdaq is the stock exchange there a lot of computer and other technology stocks are traded.

In 1986 there was a deregulation of the British securities market, and the London Stock Exchange saw a reduction in business due to a more current computerized market that was similar to Nasdaq. Finally, computers and telecommunications technology as helped international trading gain in popularity. Home computers with modems make it easy to trade 24 hours a day. In fact, some people argue that the typical way of trading will go away forever.