EURONEXT
The EURONEXT is quickly becoming one of the most important stock exchanges in the world. This is mainly because they keep taking over other exchanges and merging them into the company. These days most of the smaller stock exchanges have already joined in order to allow them to take advantage of the opportunity to trade stocks in other countries. It is quite likely that in the future even more exchanges will be added to the group.
The EURONEXT is a European stock market that operates across the whole continent. It was founded in 2000 when several European exchanges merged together to take advantage of the new rules in the European Union that allowed stocks to be traded across borders. The exchange has grown to where it is now one of the largest exchanges in the world however since neither the London nor German exchanges are included it is not the largest exchange Europe. Nevertheless it is growing in importance and it is now regarded as one of the more influential exchanges in the world.
The EURONEXT is based in Amsterdam however it also has locations in other countries. Obviously this makes it impossible to conduct trades on the floor as would be done at other exchanges since the traders are all located in a number of different places. Therefore the exchange relies heavily on computer trading to conduct its business. Nevertheless there are still traders on the floor making trades, they just happen to get their orders from a computerized system to ensure that they are transmitted quickly from one location to another.
When the EURONEXT was first founded they also allowed for the trading derivatives, mainly because they had inherited this from a number of the exchanges that they had acquired in the initial merger that created the EURONEXT. It was later decided that it would make more sense to create a separate exchange for this and EURONEXT LIFFE was created. This branch of the exchange not allows for the trading of derivatives but also currency and bonds. This has made it one of the major players in this part of the market. In addition they also sell the trading software that they use to other exchanges.
Recently EURONEXT merged with the New York Stock Exchange. This does create the world's largest exchange in theory although in practice they still operate as separate entities. Although there is some crossover in the management of the two exchanges. This will likely change in the future as they move closer together as the merger of stock exchanges is becoming quite common as they look to reduce the costs of operation. This has resulted into negotiations currently going on to add the Deutsche Bourse to the company to expand their operations in Germany. That being said there is some doubt that they will be able to get regulatory approval for such a large exchange to be created.