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Regional Exchanges

The two principal markets in the United States, the NYSE and AMEX, can actively trade only

a minuscule proportion of the total number of shares in the United States. For that reason, 14

other smaller exchanges, which are scattered around the country, are linked to the NYSE

and the AMEX in order to help them trade stock more quickly and effectively. These

exchanges, known as

regional ex-changes, operate the same as the two big exchanges, and

often even duplicate their work.

Some of the better-known regional exchanges are …

Pacific Stock Exchange

Boston Stock Exchange

Midwest Stock Exchange

Philadelphia Stock Exchange

These exchanges, while perhaps not quite as well known as NYSE and AMEX, are significant

in their own right for many reasons. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange, for example, has the

distinction of being this country's first stock exchange. Its founding in 1790 predates the

founding of the NYSE by more than a quarter of a century, and the founding of AMEX by

over half a century.

Again, many of these exchanges trade the same stocks as their bigger counterparts to help

reduce the load that the major exchanges are expected to service. At the end of the day, the

results of trading a particular stock are added up from all locations and reported to the

general public as composite trading.

Think of the situation as a burger joint. The entire country couldn't walk into the same burger

joint and expect to be served within a reasonable time frame. So, the burger joint opens up

locations all over the country, and they all offer the same food to their customers. In the same

way, the regional exchanges offer the same stocks for trade to local investors as the big ones

do. At the end of the day, however, management wants to know how many burgers were sold

at all locations. After adding together the sales at all locations, the resulting total number of

burgers sold is known as the burger joint's composite trading figure.