Texas Stock Exchange officially opens

Audio By Carbonatix

(The Center Square) – The Texas Stock Exchange officially opened Monday, fulfilling a longtime goal of Gov. Greg Abbott, who’s championed Texas leading the financial industry. 

Based in Dallas, it opened at 8:30 a.m. Monday to members, including approved broker-dealers, banks and trading firms. Trades are test stocks only. Throughout the month, a phased rollout of symbols for thousands of stocks and equities are coming online, allowing members of the public to trade. 

As part of its production launch, the TXSE began trading five designated test securities: CTEST, NTEST, ZVV, ZBZX and ZXZZT. 

On Tuesday, it added ZVZZT and ZIEXT to the test securities currently trading on TXSE. 

“As with the existing test securities, members should expect to receive reference data only for the securities actively trading on that day,” the exchange said in a statement.

Live trading begins Friday, July 10.

The TXSE is the only national securities exchange built, headquartered and incorporated in Texas. It “serves U.S.-based and international issuers, investors and market participants through issuer-aligned and transparent standards.”

It is a “fully integrated, electronic, national securities exchange purpose-built to bring real competition to corporate listings and expand access to America's public markets – providing a complete solution to list and trade U.S. and global public companies and the growing universe of exchange-traded products (ETPs),” it explains. ETPs are expected to trade by the end of the third quarter, the TXSE says.

With more businesses relocating their headquarters and operations to Texas, financial firms expanding their operations in Dallas, and the expected growth of the TXSE, the goal is for Dallas to become a national financial hub, Abbott and TXSE leaders say. 

This includes providing a superior alternative to the New York Stock Exchange, which has embraced policies problematic for shareholders including so-called Environmental, Social, Governance and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies, critics of the NYSE argue. 

In Texas and Boom Belt southeastern states where these policies are largely banned, they continue to surpass other states in business rankings and economic and job growth, with Boom Belt governors crediting the TXSE and tort reform, The Center Square reported.  

So far, total investment in the TXSE is more than $275 million.

The TXSE also led Nasdaq, Inc., which launched its first ever financial exchange in Texas, Nasdaq Texas, last November. Last August, the NYSE also launched operations in Texas for the first time in history. 

In March, Nasdaq Texas again made history by becoming ⁠fully operational as a dual-listing exchange and legally domiciled in Texas. Nasdaq and Texas leaders, including Abbott, rang the closing bell in front of the Alamo on the 190th anniversary of Texas independence.

Since Abbott’s been in office , Texas has ranked first as the best state for economic development, as well as the best state for business 20 years in a row, including a few years preceding Abbott, The Center Square reported. 

Texas has also surpassed all other states for having the most Fortune 500 headquarters in the U.S. and has more financial advisors than New York. 

In the last few years, a new trend has also begun: DEXIT, with companies redomiciling in Texas, leaving Delaware, New Jersey and other blue states.