London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is one of the oldest and largest in the world. It is also one of the most influential. It really gained its position back in the days when England was the world's leading financial power. Although this is no longer the case the London Stock Exchange remains an important part of the global economy.
The London Stock Exchange is widely regarded as the most important in Europe. It is the largest in the region in terms of market capitalization and it tends to influence the other exchanges on the continent. The London Stock Exchange was formally founded n 1801 although informal trading was going on long before that. For the first hundred and fifty years of stock trading in England the brokers got together in coffee houses in order to make trades. Over the years this became more and more formalized and rules were established that had to be followed. Ultimately this led to the formation of the stock exchange to make sure that trading was done as efficiently and as fairly as possible.
The London Stock Exchange does most of its business as an open outcry auction. This is the scene that most people are familiar with when they go think of the stock exchange. Brokers on the floor screaming and making wild gestures are quite common. This chaotic approach continues to be the most efficient way of making trades. That being said the modern world has started to make its mark on the London Stock Exchange. There is now the facility in place for automated trading using computers.
Like all stock major stock exchanges there is an enormous amount of interest in the movements of the London Stock Exchange. This is particularly true because it is generally considered to be the best indicator of what is going on in Europe. In order to keep track of what the market is doing it is necessary to have in index that people can look at to allow them to get a good idea of what is going on with the stock market. In the case of the London Stock Exchange this is the FTSE 100. This provides a view of what the hundred most important stocks on the exchange are doing.
The London Stock Exchange has recently agreed to a merger with the Toronto Stock Exchange. This merger will create the second largest stock market in the world, at least for now. Over the last few years a lot of stock exchanges have been merging and that is expected to continue in the future. The reason for this is that the global economy has meant that investors want to be able to invest in stocks from around the world without having to deal with the hassles of a lot of different exchanges. All of the mergers have made this much simpler.