Author: GW Alger

Last week Blackrock (the world’s largest asset manager), and Citadel Securities (the world’s largest hedge fund) teamed up to make a major announcement that could reshape global financial markets. They were going to team up to create a new wall street… in Texas. These two companies have the financial muscle to make a “Texas Stock Exchange” viable, but the question is… why? The startup exchange that will be located in Dallas is already taking shots to challenge the dominance of the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ which are both located in New York City and are by far the largest exchanges in America, and also the largest exchanges in the world. Both of these incumbents are private businesses that make money by providing a place where public stocks and other financial instruments can be traded securely. They make their money by charging companies that want to list on their exchange a one time IPO fee and an ongoing annual fee. The New York Stock Exchange is really not much different to a farmers market where businesses will pay the market organizer for the right to sell their stuff in a place with lots of customers. The only difference is that instead of beets, and artisanal honey, they are selling shares in their company. If the New York Stock Exchange is like a farmers market then the NASDAQ is like ebay, it’s still a marketplace but it’s all done online. The NYSE is owned by a company called Intercontinental Exchange whos shares you can buy on the New York Stock Exchange so apart from a lot of regulatory paperwork there is nothing too special about these companies. As long as a business gets approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission there is nothing to stop them from establishing their own stock exchange wherever they want. The reason they both happen to be located in New York City has more to do with legacy than any pragmatic benefits of operating in a state that is actually not particularly business friendly. The New York Stock Exchange was formed when New York was still a trading center and the NASDAQ set up there in 1971 because at the time the city was the undisputed business capital of America and back then physical proximity was much more important than it is today even though it has always been an electronic exchange. So why is this new challenger bucking the trend and setting up in Texas? Well… why not Texas? So it’s time to learn How Money Works to find out why some of the most powerful financial institutions in the world want to build a new Wall Street in Texas