QCI #023 - Oldest Stock Exchanges

These are the world's oldest stock exchanges and the dates of their inauguration.

The Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX) was acquired by Nasdaq OMX Group, now Nasdaq Inc., in July 2008 for $652 million. This acquisition aimed to diversify Nasdaq's product portfolio by incorporating PHLX's options trading platform.

Stock Exchanges evolved from dealer-to-dealer markets where the same stock or bond would be traded tens of dollars apart, and most traders profited purely from arbitrage by purchasing from one dealer and selling to another, all by touch. Exchanges introduced unity to trading and dollar spreads. That then led to fractional spreads first of halves, then quarters, then eighths, sixteenths, and then decimalization in 2001.

Stock markets enable the trading of billions of dollars every day.

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