JSE Securities Exchange

The JSE Limited (previously the JSE Securities Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange)[1] is the largest stock exchange in Africa. It is situated at the corner of Maude Street and Gwen Lane in Sandton, Gauteng, South Africa. In 2003 the JSE had an estimated 472 listed companies and a market capitalisation of US$182.6 billion (€158 billion) as well as an average monthly traded value of US$ 6,399 million (€5.5 billion). As of 30 September 2006, the market capitalisation of the JSE was at US$579.1 billion. The JSE is presently the 16th largest stock exchange worldwide.
The JSE is planning to create a pan-African exchange by initially enabling investors to trade in shares from Ghana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Later it will expand this across the rest of Africa.

Jakarta Stock Exchange

Originally opened in 1912 under the Dutch colonial government, it was re-opened in 1977 after several closures during World War I and World War II. After being reopened in 1977, the exchange was under the management of the newly created Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Badan Pengawas Pasar Modal, or Bapepam), which answered to the Ministry of Finance. Trading activity and market capitalization grew alongside the development of Indonesia's financial markets and private sector - highlighted by a major bull run in 1990. On July 13, 1992, the exchange was privatized under the ownership of Jakarta Exchange Inc. As a result, the functions of Bapepam changed to become the Capital Market Supervisory Agency. On March 22, 1995 JSX launched the Jakarta Automated Trading System (JATS). In September 2007, Jakarta Stock Exchange and Surabaya Stock Exchange merged and named Indonesian Stock Exchange by Indonesian Minister of Finance.

Istanbul Stock Exchange

The Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE)[1] (Turkish: İstanbul Menkul Kıymetler Borsası, İMKB) is the only corporation in Turkey for securities exchange established to provide trading in equities, bonds and bills, revenue-sharing certificates, private sector bonds, foreign securities and real estate certificates as well as international securities. The ISE was founded as an autonomous, professional organization in early 1986. It is situated in a modern building complex in Emirgan, on the European side of Istanbul since May 15, 1995. The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the ISE is Hüseyin Erkan who was appointed by the government on November 2, 2007.
ISE is home to 320 national companies. Trading hours are 09:30-12:00 for the first session and 14:00-17:00 for the second session, on workdays. All ISE members are incorporated banks and brokerage houses.
ISE price indices are computed and published throughout the trading session while the return indices are calculated and published at the close of the session only. The indices are: ISE National-All Shares Index, ISE National-30, ISE National-50, ISE National-100, Sector and sub-sector indices, ISE Second National Market Index, ISE New Economy Market Index and ISE Investment Trusts Index. The ISE National-100 Index contains both the ISE National-50 and ISE National-30 Index and is used as a main indicator of the national market.

Hong Kong Stock Exchange

The exchange has predominantly been the main exchange for Hong Kong where shares of listed companies are traded. It is Asia's third largest stock exchange in terms of market capitalization, behind the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Stock Exchange. As of 31 December 2007, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange had 1,241 listed companies with a combined market capitalization of $2.7 trillion.[1] Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing is the holding company for the exchange.

Helsinki Stock Exchange

The Helsinki Stock Exchange (Finnish: Helsingin Pörssi, Swedish: Helsingforsbörsen) is a stock exchange located in Helsinki, Finland. Since 3 September 2003 it has been part of OMX, referred to as OMX Helsinki (OMXH). Since NASDAQ's acquisition of OMX in February 2008, the official name of the Helsinki exchange has been NASDAQ OMX Helsinki.

Ghana Stock Exchange

The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) is the principal stock exchange of Ghana. The exchange was incorporated in July 1989 with trading commencing in 1990. It currently has around 30 listed companies and 2 corporate bonds. All types of securities can be listed. Criteria for listing include capital adequacy, profitability, spread of shares, years of existence and management efficiency. The GSE is located in Accra.

Frankfurt Stock Exchange

The Frankfurt Stock Exchange (German: FWB Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse) is a stock exchange located in Frankfurt, Germany.
The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is one of the biggest and most efficient exchange places in the world. It is owned and operated by Deutsche Börse, which also owns the European futures exchange Eurex and clearing company Clearstream.
The Frankfurt Stock Exchange has over 90 percent of turnover in the German market and a big share in the European market. Here the Frankfurt Stock Exchange floor trading loses, but in fast developing and expanding electronic trading (Xetra trading system) the FSE gains in European and international trade: partner-exchanges adopted the Xetra (trading system) (as the Vienna Stock Exchange in 1999, the Irish Stock Exchange in 2000 and the Budapest Stock Exchange in 2003); consolidation continues.

Euronext Lisbon

Euronext Lisbon is a stock exchange in Lisbon, Portugal. It belongs to the NYSE Euronext group, the first global stock exchange.
Euronext Lisbon trades equities, public and private bonds, participation bonds, warrants, corporate warrants, investment trust units, and exchange traded funds. The BVL General index is the exchanges official index, and includes all listed shares on the official market. Settlement is T+3. Derivatives include long-term interest rate futures, three month Lisbor futures, stock index futures and options on the PSI-20 Stock index, and Portuguese stock futures. Trading hours are 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (CET), Monday through Friday.

Brussels Stock Exchange

The Brussels Stock Exchange (BSE) (French: Bourse de Bruxelles, Dutch: Beurs van Brussel) was founded in Brussels, Belgium by Napoleonic decree in 1801. On September 22, 2000, the BSE merged with Paris Bourse, Lisbon Stock Exchange and the stock exchanges of Amsterdam, to form Euronext N.V., the first pan-European exchange for equities and derivatives, with common trading and clearing of all products, and was renamed Euronext Brussels. The most well known index on the Brussels Stock Exchange is the BEL20.

Amsterdam Stock Exchange

The Amsterdam Stock Exchange is the former name for the stock exchange based in Amsterdam. It merged on 22 September 2000 with the Brussels Stock Exchange and the Paris Stock Exchange to form Euronext, and is now known as Euronext Amsterdam.

Channel Islands Stock Exchange

The Channel Islands Stock Exchange (CISX) is a stock exchange operating in St. Peter Port, Guernsey. It was founded as a company limited both by guarantee and by shares. The aim of CISX is to be the premier offshore stock exchange in the European time zone and the Exchange of choice for the listing of investment funds, debt instruments and the shares of companies.
CISX was established in October 1998. Since than, it has experienced rapid growth. It is an integral part of the infrastructure upon which the top tier finance centre of Guernsey relies and offers a service and structure unique in the European time zone.
It provides listing facility and screen-based trading for local and international trading companies, investment companies - both open and closed-ended funds - specialist debt securities and Channel Islands depository receipts (CIDRS). These includes specialist securities, including, Eurobonds, Structured Debt, Warrants and SPVs; and investment funds.
Some of the strengths of CISX are competitive pricing, responsive and approachable market authority that meets daily to consider applications for listings, international standards of issuer regulation, enhanced marketability and added value service, and premier location.

Casablanca Stock Exchange

The Casablanca Stock Exchange (French: La Bourse de Casablanca) is a stock exchange in Casablanca, Morocco. The Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE), which achieves one of the best performances in the region of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), is Africa's second largest Bourse after Johannesburg Stock Exchange, South Africa and is the third oldest stock exchange in Africa

Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchange

Egypt's Stock Exchange (CASE) comprises two exchanges, Cairo and Alexandria, both of which are governed by the same board of directors and share the same trading, clearing and settlement systems. In March 2009, the 30 largest companies being traded, CASE 30 Index, changed its name to EGX 30 Index. The Alexandria Stock Exchange was officially established in 1883, with Cairo following in 1903.
Both exchanges were very active in the 1940s, and the combined Egyptian Stock Exchange ranked fifth in the world. The central planning and socialist policies adopted in the mid 1950's led to the Stock Exchange's dormancy between 1961 and 1992.
In the 1990s, the Egyptian government's restructuring and economic reform program resulted in the revival of the Egyptian stock market, and a major change in the organisation of the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchanges took place in January 1997 with the election of a new board of directors and the establishment of a number of board committees.
Under the chairman at that time, Sherif Raafat, the board of directors determined to modernise the Exchange. Steps taken since then have included:
creating a coherent organisation structure with clear division of authority and responsibilities
deciding to install a new state-of-the-art trading, clearing and settling system conforming to international standards (In May 1998 a contract was signed with EFA Software Ltd., a Canadian company, to this end)
developing new membership and trading rules, and arbitration and dispute resolution procedures
Planning the improvement of the clearing, settlement and payment systems
By the end of November 1998, these efforts had started to bear fruit and there were 833 listed companies on the Egyptian Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of approximately L.E. 71.3 billion (up from 627 companies listed in 1991 with a market capitalization of L.E. 8.8 billion).

Budapest Stock Exchange

The Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE) was re-opened in 1990[1] with headquarters in Budapest, Hungary.
BSE is the key institution of the Hungarian Financial market and the official trading venue for publicly offered securities.
The exchange has pre-market sessions from 08:30am to 09:00am and normal trading sessions from 09:00am to 04:30pm on all days of the week except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays declared by the Exchange in advance

Bucharest Stock Exchange

The Bucharest Stock Exchange (Bursa de Valori Bucureşti in Romanian) is a stock exchange in Bucharest, capital of Romania. On December 1, 2005, Bucharest's electronic over-the-counter stock market, Rasdaq, was merged with the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
The total capitalisation of the Bucharest Stock Exchange is around 55 bn $ and the capitalisation of Rasdaq is around 9 bn$.

Bombay Stock Exchange

The Stock Exchange, Mumbai; popularly called The Bombay Stock Exchange, or BSE) has the greatest number of listed companies in the world, with 4700 listed as of August 2007. It is located at Dalal Street, Mumbai, India. On 31 December 2007, the equity market capitalization of the companies listed on the BSE was US$ 1.79 trillion, making it the largest stock exchange in South Asia and the 12th largest in the world.

Lima Stock Exchange

The Bolsa de Valores de Lima (BVL) is the stock exchange of Peru, situated in the capital Lima. It has several indices. The IGBVL (Indice General Bolsa de Valores) is a value-weighted index that tracks the performance of the largest and most actively traded stocks on the Lima Exchange

Mexican Stock Exchange

The Mexican Stock Exchange (in Spanish: Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, BMV) is Mexico's only stock exchange. It is headquartered on the prestigious Paseo de la Reforma in central Mexico City. It is the second largest stock exchange in the Latin America. The total value of the Mexican Stock Exchange is estimated to be over US $600 billion

Bermuda Stock Exchange

The Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX), established in 1971, is now the world’s leading fully electronic offshore securities market, with a current market capitalization (excluding mutual funds) in excess of US$300[citation needed] billion. Approximately 400 securities are listed on the BSX, of which almost 300 are offshore funds and alternative investment structures. As of 31 December 2007, the BSX had 53 listed companies with a combined market capitalization of $2.4 billion

Belgrade Stock Exchange

Belgrade Stock Exchange was first founded on November 21, 1894 and it functioned until the breakout of World War II in Yugoslavia. It officially began trading on January 2, 1895 in the Hotel Bosna building. In 1953 it was formally closed as the stock exchange did not fit the new socialist economy of the country.
It was reopened in 1989 as the Yugoslavian Capital Market, but after the breakup of the country it was renamed back to Belgrade Stock Exchange. In 2001 large scale privatization began and the Stock Exchange started trading privatized stock. A year later, trade with bonds of the Republic of Serbia started as well.
In September 2004, Belgrade Stock Exchange was accepted into the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges.

Athens Stock Exchange

The Athens Exchange or ATHEX (Greek: Χρηματιστήριο Αθηνών or ΧΑ) is a stock exchange located in Athens, Greece. It was first opened in 1876. Athens Exchange is a subsidiary of Hellenic Exchanges S.A., whose shares are listed in ATHEX. In August 1999 the derivatives market started operating, and in 2002 the Athens Stock Exchange and the Athens Derivatives Exchange merged to form Athens Exchange. Until 2007, it was located in Psiris, Sofocleous Street, near the city centre of Athens. For this reason the Exchange and Sofocleous St became synonymous. Now it resides in its new headquarters designed by Babis Vovos Constructions at 110 Athinon Street also called Kavalas Street. The exchange has normal trading sessions from 10:00am to 05:20pm on all days of the week except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays declared by the Exchange in advance

American Stock Exchange

NYSE Alternext U.S., formerly known as the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) is an American stock exchange situated in New York. AMEX was a mutual organization, owned by its members. Until 1953 it was known as the New York Curb Exchange. On January 17, 2008 NYSE Euronext announced it would acquire the American Stock Exchange for $260 million in stock. On October 1, 2008, NYSE Euronext completed acquisition of the American Stock Exchange. Before the closing of the acquisition, NYSE Euronext announced that the Exchange will be integrated with Alternext European small-cap exchange and renamed NYSE Alternext U.S.

National Stock Exchange (NSE)

The National Stock Exchange (NSE), located in Bombay, is India's first debt market. It was set up in 1993 to encouragestock exchange reform through system modernization and competition. It opened for trading in mid-1994. It was recently accorded recognition as a stock exchange by the Department of Company Affairs. The instruments traded are, treasury bills, government security and bonds issued by public sector companies.

The number of members trading on the exchange has been on a steady increase, helping integrate the national market and providing a modern system with a complete audit trail of all transactions.

Stock Prices: Income vs. Growth

The price of an income stock tends to stay fairly flat. That is, from year to year, the price of the stock tends to remain about the same unless profits (and therefore dividends) go up. People are getting their money each year and the business is not growing. This would be the case for stock in a single restaurant that distributes all of its profits to the shareholders each year.

Let's say that the single restaurant decides, for several years, to save its profits, and eventually it opens a second restaurant. That is the behavior of a growth company. The value of the stock rises because, when the second restaurant opens, there is twice as much equipment and twice as much profit being earned by the company. In a growth stock, the shareholders do not get a yearly dividend, but they own a company whose value is increasing. Therefore, the shareholders can get more money when they sell their shares -- someone buying the stock would see the increasing book value of the company (the value of the buildings, equipment, etc.) and the increasing profit that the company is earning and, based on these factors, pay a higher price for the stock.

In a publicly traded company, all of the financial information about the company is public. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is in charge of collecting this information and making it available to investors. Shareholders also use a number of other indicators to determine how much a stock is worth. One simple indicator is the price/earnings ratio. This is the price of the stock divided by the earnings per share. There are all sorts of indicators like these, as well as a great deal of other financial information available on any stock. You can look up all of it on the Web in thousands of different places -- see the links at the end of this article for details.

Stock Prices

Let's say that a new corporation is created and in its IPO it raises $20 million by selling one million shares for $20 a share. The corporation buys its equipment and hires its employees with that money. In the first year, when all the income and expenses are added up, the company makes a profit of $1 million. The board of directors of the company can decide to do a number of things with that $1 million:

It could put it in the bank and save it for a rainy day.
It could decide to give all of the profits to its shareholders, so it would declare a dividend of $1 per share.
It could use the money to buy more equipment and hire more employees to expand the company.
It could pick some combination of these three options.
­If a company traditionally pays out most its profits to its shareholders, it is generally called an income stock. The shareholders get income from the company's profits. If the company puts most of the money back into the business, it is called a growth stock. The company is trying to grow larger by increasing the amount of equipment and the number of people who run it.

Shareholders

­From this description, you can see that a corporation has a group of owners -- the shareholders. The owners elect a board of directors to make the company's major decisions. The owners of a corporation become owners by buying shares of stock in the corporation. The board of directors decides how many total shares there will be. For example, a company might have one million shares of stock. The company can either be privately held or publicly held. In a privately held company, the shares of stock are owned by a small number of people who probably all know one another. They buy and sell their shares amongst themselves. A publicly held company is owned by thousands of people who trade their shares on a public stock exchange.

One of the big reasons why corporations exist is to create a structure for collecting lots of investment dollars in a business. Let's say that you would like to start your own airline. Most people cannot do this, because an airplane costs millions of dollars. An airline needs a whole fleet of planes and other equipment, plus it has to hire a lot of employees. A person who wants to start an airline will therefore form a corporation and sell stock in order to collect the money needed to get started.

A corporation is an easy way to gather large quantities of investment capital -- money from investors. When a corporation first sells stock to the public, it does so in an IPO (Initial Public Offering). The company might sell one million shares of stock at $20 a share to raise $20 million very quickly (that is a simplification -- the brokerage house in charge of the IPO will extract its fee from the $20 million, but let's ignore that here). The company then invests the $20 million in equipment and employees. The investors (the shareholders who bought the $20 million in stock) hope that with the equipment and employees, the company will make a profit and pay a dividend.

Another reason that corporations exist is to limit the liability of the owners to some extent. If the corporation gets sued, it is the corporation that pays the settlement. The corporation may go out of business, but that is the worst that can happen. If you are a sole proprietor who owns a restaurant and the restaurant gets sued, you are the one who is being sued. "You" and "the restaurant" are the same thing. If you lose the suit then you, personally, can lose everything you own in the process.

How Stocks and the Stock Market Work

­The stock market appears in the news every day. You hear about it any time it reaches a new high or a new low, and you also hear about it daily in statements like "The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2 percent today, with advances leading declines by a margin of..."

Obviously, stocks and the stock market are important, but you may find that you know very little about them. What is a stock? What is a stock market? Why do we need a stock market? Where does the stock come from to begin with, and why do people want to buy and sell it? If you have questions like these, then this article will open your eyes to a whole new world!

Calculating Your Net Worth

Now that you've gathered all the information about your own assets and liabilities, you may find the next part easy. You'll simply need to add up all of the amounts listed under assets, and separately, add up all of the amounts listed under liabilities. You should end up with two numbers: a grand total of assets and a grand total of liabilities. Finally, subtract the total liabilities from the total assets -- and, voila! You have your net worth.

The formula can be expressed simply as:

Net worth = assets - liabilities

Assets and Liabilities

Your net worth is a snapshot of your finances. The picture will change slightly the next time you pay a bill and again, the next time you receive a paycheck. To determine your current magic number, the first step is to take a look at all of your assets, which are anything of value that you own. Make a list of all these items and next to each, list the amount it's worth. These typically include:

Cash -- any physical currency and coins you have
Funds in the bank -- all the money you have in a savings, checking, or money market accounts, and any certificates of deposit (CDs)
Stocks, bonds and mutual funds: also list savings bonds
Retirement accounts -- includes 401(k) funds, IRAs and any other retirement accounts
Life insurance -- counting any cash value you have in the policy
Motor Vehicles: the current blue book value of any cars, motorcycles, boats, RVs, etc.
Real Estate -- the current market value of property (house, condo, land, etc.) you own, even if you have a mortgage
Personal Valuables -- including the market value of jewelry, collectibles (from baseball cards to art) and furniture
Money you're owed -- as long as you have a reasonable expectation of being paid back

How to Determine Your Net Worth

­When you were younger, did you ever wonder if you'd amount to anything? Although it may be hard to quantify your true worth, it's easy to quantify your finances. If you've never done it before, perhaps it's time to take inventory and find out exactly how much you're worth. Calculating your net worth will give you an accurate picture of where you stand financially.
Net worth is a single amount representing how much money a person would have if he sold all of his assets and paid off his debts. Unless you plan on shedding yourself of every material thing in your life right now and starting anew, you probably won't ever act out this scenario. So, why consider it at all? If you have any financial plans for the future -- say, buying a house, sending a kid through college or retiring -- it's especially important to know your current financial state. As the saying goes, you never know how to get somewhere unless you know where you are right now. Knowing your net worth helps you make better decisions on how to accomplish your financial goals.

Determining your net worth involves taking a good hard look at all aspects of your finances -- the good, the bad and the ugly. This means that you may not come out ahead when all is said and done. Prepare yourself for the possibility that the final number will be negative. A negative net worth means that you owe more than you own. A hefty mortgage, student loans or steep credit card debt could send you down into negative territory. But, take heart; there are several avenues out of debt that we'll discuss later.

Determining Value

Let's say that you want to start a business, and you decide to open a restaurant. You go out and buy a building, buy all the kitchen equipment, tables and chairs that you need, buy your supplies and hire your cooks, servers, etc. You advertise and open your doors.

Let's say that:

You spend $500,000 buying the building and the equipment.
In the first year, you spend $250,000 on supplies, food and the payroll for your employees.
At the end of your first year, you add up all of the money you have received from customers and find that your total income is $300,000.