Concept
The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; Bourse de Toronto) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the 11th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in the EY Tower in Toronto's Financial District, the TSX is a wholly owned subsidiary of the TMX Group for the trading of senior equities. The Toronto Stock Exchange likely descended from the Association of Brokers, a group formed by Toronto businessmen on July 26, 1852. No records of the group's transactions have survived. It is however known that on October 25, 1861, twenty-four brokers gathered at the Masonic Hall to create and participate in the Toronto Stock Exchange. Between 1852 and 1870, two other distinct, commodity-orientated, exchanges were founded : the Toronto Exchange in 1854 and the Toronto Stock and Mining Exchange in 1868. Initially the TSE had 13 listings but it grew to 18 in 1868 (a majority of bonds and bank's issues). Many banks of Upper Canada failed during 1869, which halted any sort of trading in the city as the market was just too small. A bull market in 1870 boosted investor's confidence and eight of the original 24 brokers joined again to re-establish the TSE. The exchange was incorporated by an act of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 1878. The TSE grew continuously in size and in shares traded, save for a three-month period in 1914 when the exchange was shut down for fear of financial panic due to World War I. The day of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Toronto's exchange was better connected to New York's and received the bad news before Montreal's (prior to 1931, exchanges communicated via telephone or by brokers' private wires, as they were not yet interconnected by ticker). By the afternoon, its three most popular stocks were down by at least 8%: International Nickel, Hiram Walker & Sons and Brazilian Light & Power. The following day, a record number of 331,000 shares changed hands on the TSE, with an overall loss of value of 20% (in Montreal, 525,000 shares and 25% loss).
