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| Type | Regional stock exchange |
|---|---|
| Location | Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
| Founded | 1906 |
| Closed | November 29, 1999 |
The Vancouver Stock Exchange (VSE) was a stock exchange based in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was incorporated 1906. On November 29, 1999, the VSE was merged into the Canadian Venture Exchange (CDNX).
It was incorporated 1906 [1] and was the third major stock exchange in Canada, after the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and Montreal Stock Exchange (MSE), and featured many small-capitalization, mining, oil and gas-exploration stocks. [2]
In 1989, Forbes magazine labelled the VSE the "scam capital of the world." [3] The VSE tended to attract colorful characters involved in questionable schemes. [4] The best known 'character' on VSE was Murray "the Pez" Pezim. [4] The British journalist Bob Mackin wrote about Pezim: ""The Pez" was the quintessential Howe Street wheeler-dealer known for smoking cigars, promoting his latest get-rich-quick scheme and womanizing. He flogged Vita Pez pep pills and audio tape greeting cards through Pezzaz Productions, a subsidiary of Pezamerica. He scored big with the 1981 Hemlo Valley and 1989 Eskay Creek gold discoveries." [4]
In 1973, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police estimated that between 20%-30% of the stocks of the companies listed in the VSE were involved in some sort of fraud. [4] In 1979, a study revealed that investors in companies listed on the VSE lost some of their investments due to fraud 84% of the time, and all of their investments due to fraud 40% of the time, giving the VSE the dubious reputation as the stock exchange with the highest rate of fraud in the world. [5] In 1991, it listed some 2,300 stocks. Some local figures stated that the majority of these stocks were either total failures or frauds. [5] A 1994 report by James Matkin (Vancouver Stock Exchange & Securities Regulation Commission) made reference to "shams, swindles and market manipulations" within the VSE. [6] Regardless, it had roughly C$4 billion in annual trading in 1991. [7] The Hells Angels were extensively involved in many of the stock market frauds on the VSE in the 1980s-1990s. [8] Sasha Angus, the anti-fraud officer of the B.C. Securities Commission in charge of regulating the Vancouver Stock Exchange complained that many wealthy businessmen are quite willing to do business with the Angels and that "We understand the biker gangs are behind a lot of stuff [fraud] we've seen. But they don't always leave their calling card". [8]
The dubious reputation of the VSE made investors unwilling to put their money into stocks in the "scam capital of the world", and led to the VSE to go into a major decline by the 1990s as investors much preferred the better regulated Toronto stock exchange. [5] The journalist Clyde Woolman wrote: "The often swashbuckling, sometimes outrageous style of the likes of Nelson Skalbania and Murray Pezim sucked up newspaper print and did nothing to alter the exchange's image". [5] The image of the VSE was so badly damaged by the number of scandals that it was finally shut down. [5] On November 29, 1999, the VSE was merged into the Canadian Venture Exchange (CDNX) (now known as the TSX Venture Exchange), along with the Alberta Stock Exchange (ASE) and the minor-cap stocks from the Bourse de Montréal (MSE). The trading floor of the old VSE remained as the trading floor of the new CDNX.
The history of the exchange's index provides an example of large errors arising from the accumulation of seemingly minor round-off errors. In January 1982 the index was initialized at 1000 and iteratively updated with each subsequent trade. After each update, the index was truncated to three decimal places. The truncated value was used to calculate the next value of the index. Updates occurred approximately 3000 times each day. The accumulated truncations led to an erroneous loss of around 25 points per month. Over the weekend of November 25–28, 1983, the error was corrected, raising the value of the index from its Friday closing figure of 524.811 to 1098.892. [9] [10]
The Toronto Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the 10th 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.
TMX Group Limited is a Canadian financial services company that operates equities, fixed income, derivatives, and energy markets exchanges. The company provides services encompassing listings, trading, clearing, settling and depository facilities, information services as well as technology services for the international financial community.
Pump and dump (P&D) is a form of securities fraud that involves artificially inflating the price of an owned stock through false and misleading positive statements (pump), in order to sell the cheaply purchased stock at a higher price (dump). Once the operators of the scheme "dump" (sell) their overvalued shares, the price falls and investors lose their money. This is most common with small-cap cryptocurrencies and very small corporations/companies, i.e. "microcaps".
National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) is one of the leading stock exchanges in India, based in Mumbai. NSE is under the ownership of various financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies. It is the world's largest derivatives exchange by number of contracts traded and the third largest in cash equities by number of trades for the calendar year 2022. It is the 7th largest stock exchange in the world by total market capitalization, exceeding $5 trillion on May 23, 2024. NSE's flagship index, the NIFTY 50, is a 50 stock index that is used extensively by investors in India and around the world as a barometer of the Indian capital market. The NIFTY 50 index was launched in 1996 by NSE.
The Montreal Exchange, formerly the Montreal Stock Exchange (MSE), is a derivatives exchange, located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada that trades futures contracts and options on equities, indices, currencies, ETFs, energy and interest rates. Since 1965, it has been located in the Tour de la Bourse, Montreal's third-tallest building. It is owned by the Toronto-based TMX Group.
Penny stocks are common shares of small public companies that trade for less than one dollar per share. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) uses the term "Penny stock" to refer to a security, a financial instrument which represents a given financial value, issued by small public companies that trade at less than $5 per share. Penny stocks are priced over-the-counter, rather than on the trading floor. The term "penny stock" refers to shares that, prior to the SEC's classification, traded for "pennies on the dollar". In 1934, when the United States government passed the Securities Exchange Act to regulate any and all transactions of securities between parties which are "not the original issuer", the SEC at the time disclosed that equity securities which trade for less than $5 per share could not be listed on any national stock exchange or index.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index is the benchmark Canadian stock market index representing roughly 70% of the total market capitalization on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). Having replaced the TSE 300 Composite Index on May 1, 2002, as of September 20, 2021 the S&P/TSX Composite Index comprises 237 of the 3,451 companies listed on the TSX. The index reached an all-time closing high of 22,185.25 on April 1, 2024, and an intraday record high of 22,220.91 on March 28, 2024.
The TSX Venture Exchange is a stock exchange in Canada. It is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, with offices in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. All trading through the Exchange is done electronically, so the Exchange does not have a "trading floor". It was previously known as the Canadian Venture Exchange (CDNX), but in 2001 the TSX Group purchased it and renamed it.
The S&P/TSX 60 Index is a stock market index of 60 large companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Launched on December 30, 1998 by the Canadian S&P Index Committee, a unit of S&P Dow Jones Indices, the index has components across nine sectors of the Canadian economy. The index forms the S&P/TSX Composite Index alongside the S&P/TSX Completion Index, as well as being the Canadian component of the S&P Global 1200.
The Zagreb Stock Exchange or ZSE is a stock exchange located in Zagreb, Croatia. It is Croatia's only stock exchange. The exchange trades shares of Croatian companies, as well as bonds and commercial bills.
Securities fraud, also known as stock fraud and investment fraud, is a deceptive practice in the stock or commodities markets that induces investors to make purchase or sale decisions on the basis of false information. The setups are generally made to result in monetary gain for the deceivers, and generally result in unfair monetary losses for the investors. They are generally violating securities laws.
Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE), operated by CNSX Inc., is a stock exchange domiciled in Canada. When recognized by the Ontario Securities Commission in 2004, CSE was the first new exchange approved in Ontario in 70 years. The CSE is a rapidly growing stock exchange focused on working with entrepreneurs to access the public capital markets in Canada and internationally. The Exchange's efficient operating model, advanced technology and low fee structure help companies of all sizes minimize their cost of capital and maximize access to liquidity.
The Alberta Stock Exchange (ASE) was a stock exchange based in Calgary, Alberta, established in 1913. It featured mostly mining, resource exploration, and oil sands stocks. The ASE was the original listing exchange for Bre-X, one of the biggest corporate frauds in Canadian history.
The Maldives Stock Exchange (MSE), is a private sector Stock Exchange located at 3rd Floor, H. Gadhamoo Building in Malé, Maldives.
Microcap stock fraud is a form of securities fraud involving stocks of "microcap" companies, generally defined in the United States as those with a market capitalization of under $250 million. Its prevalence has been estimated to run into the billions of dollars a year. Many microcap stocks are penny stocks, which the SEC defines as a security that trades at less than $5 per share, is not listed on a national exchange, and fails to meet other specific criteria.
The Mongolian Stock Exchange is Mongolia's sole stock exchange. It is based in Ulaanbaatar and was established in January 1991 by the decree of the Mongolian Government to privatize state-owned assets.
Battle North Gold was a Canadian company that was pursuing the development of the Bateman gold project near Red Lake, Ontario. Headquartered in Toronto, the company was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canada and the New York Stock Exchange and then the OTCQX market exchange in the US. The company's board of directors had approved the construction of the mine in 2014 and raised $700 million but little gold was recovered. Consequently, the company sought creditor protection and re-structured. By 2018 the company had a market capitalization of $80 million as it pursued new resource estimates. The company was acquired by Australian Securities Exchange-listed company Evolution Mining in 2021.
Cboe Canada is a stock exchange based in Toronto. Part of the Cboe Global Markets network, the exchange has over 260 listings for public companies, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Canadian Depositary Receipts (CDRs), Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs), and closed-end funds. Cboe Canada handles 15% of the volume traded across Canadian marketplaces, including 20% of Canadian ETF transactions.
VIVO Cannabis Inc(formerly ABcann Global) is a Canadian licensed cannabis producer, headquartered in Napanee, Ontario. Prior to being acquired by MediPharm Labs Corp., VIVO traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange as VIVO.
Global X Investments Canada Inc. is a financial services company that offers exchange-traded funds. On May 1, 2024, the company changed its name from Horizons ETFs to Global X Investments Canada Inc. In April 2017, Global X began offering the first cannabis industry focused exchange-traded fund (ETF), Global X Marijuana Life Sciences Index ETF. The company is also the fourth-largest ETF provider in Canada, with more than CAD$30 billion in assets as of April 2023.
Cruise, David; Griffiths, Alison. Fleecing the Lamb: The Inside Story of the Vancouver Stock Exchange. Douglas & Mcintyre Ltd. 1987 ISBN 978-0888945587
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