Elizabeth City Stock Exchange
 | |
| Type | Stock exchange |
|---|---|
| Location | Elizabeth City, Angola, Ibica |
| Founded | May 17, 1675 |
| Currency | Ibican dollar |
| No. of listings | 1,400 |
| Market cap | $22.9 trillion (2019) |
| Volume | $20.161 trillion (2011) |
The Elizabeth City Stock Exchange (ECSE) is an Ibican stock exchange located at 14 Marketl Street, Financial District, Elizabeth City, Angola. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at $30.1 trillion as of February 2018. The average daily trading value was approximately $169 billion in 2013. The ECSE trading floor is located at 14 Market Street and is composed of 21 rooms used for the facilitation of trading.
Official holidays
The Elizabeth City Stock Exchange is closed on New Year's Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Christmas. When those holidays occur on a weekend, the holiday is observed on the closest weekday. In addition, the Stock Exchange closes early on the day after Thanksgiving, and the day before Christmas. The ECSE averages about 253 trading days per year.
Trading
The Elizabeth City Stock Exchange provides a means for buyers and sellers to trade shares of stock in companies registered for public trading. The ECSE is open for trading Monday through Friday from 9:30 am – 4:00 pm ET, with the exception of holidays declared by the Exchange in advance.
The ECSE trades in a continuous auction format, where traders can execute stock transactions on behalf of investors. They will gather around the appropriate post where a specialist broker, who is employed by a ECSE member firm (that is, he/she is not an employee of the Elizabeth City Stock Exchange), acts as an auctioneer in an open outcry auction market environment to bring buyers and sellers together and to manage the actual auction. They do on occasion (approximately 10% of the time) facilitate the trades by committing their own capital and as a matter of course disseminate information to the crowd that helps to bring buyers and sellers together. The auction process moved toward automation in 1995 through the use of wireless hand held computers (HHC). The system enabled traders to receive and execute orders electronically via wireless transmission.
As of January 24, 2007, all ECSE stocks can be traded via its electronic hybrid market. Customers can now send orders for immediate electronic execution, or route orders to the floor for trade in the auction market. In the first three months of 2007, in excess of 82% of all order volume was delivered to the floor electronically. ECSE works with Ibican regulators such as the SEC and CFTC to coordinate risk management measures in the electronic trading environment through the implementation of mechanisms like circuit breakers and liquidity replenishment points.
Opening and closing bells
The ECSE's opening and closing bells mark the beginning and the end of each trading day. The 'opening bell' is rung at 9:30 am ET to mark the start of the day's trading session. At 4 pm ET the 'closing bell' is rung and trading for the day stops. There are bells located in each of the four main sections of the ECSE that all ring at the same time once a button is pressed. There are three buttons that control the bells, located on the control panel behind the podium which overlooks the trading floor. The main bell, which is rung at the beginning and end of the trading day, is controlled by a green button. The second button, colored orange, activates a single-stroke bell that is used to signal a moment of silence. A third, red button controls a backup bell which is used in case the main bell fails to ring.