Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE)

The Canadian Securities Exchange was the first full stock market to be approved by the Ontario Securities Commission. The exchange was founded in 2001 and formerly recognised as a full stock exchange in 2004. It had begun operations in 2003 to provide modern and efficient alternatives for companies looking to access the capital markets of Canada.

The Canadian Stock Exchange is located in Toronto and also operates an office within the city of Vancouver – covering both coasts of Canada. To increase its reach, in September 2007 the exchange introduced ‘Pure Trading’ – an electronic network via which many stocks listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange can be traded.

In September 2013, the CEO of Dundee Corporation, Ned Goodman, bought a third of the exchange and joined its board of directors. At this point the exchange had in the region of 200 listings, and in the subsequent year rebranded from the CNSX to the CSE (whish it still trades under today).

In February 2015, the CSE Composite Index was introduced as a broad case indicator of activity within the market for the Canadian Securities Exchange. With around 75% coverage on all the equities that are currently listed on the CSE, the Composite Index gives a good indicator of the stocks on the exchange and of the Canadian economy more broadly. Reuters and Bloomberg all publish the Canadian Securities Exchange composite index under the ticker CSECOMP.

The exchange’s regular trading hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET, and today the CSE lists over 500 companies and has a market cap of over $25 billion.

The CSE Composite Index is the predominantly used index for tracking the CSE. With around 75% coverage of all equities listed on the CSE, it is positioned uniquely as a gauge in the Canadian Small-cap market.

The CSE25 is a subset index of the CSE Composite Index. It contains the securities of twenty-five of the largest index companies by market capitalisation. This sub-index contains over 52.75% of the total weight of the Composite Index.