The Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) is the main stock exchange in Australia.Other mirror exchanges exist but they simply mirror the Australian  Exchange. The  Stock Exchange started off as individual exchanges in different states which were established as far back as 1871.

Trading on the stock exchange is all electronic not like in days gone buy where it was all manual and left up to humans. The system responsible for this is called SEATS.

There are four major index's which are reguarily quoted and these include the All Ordinaries, The ASX 200(list of the top 200 stocks),the ASX 100 (list of the top 100 stocks and the ASX 50 which contains the top 50 stocks.The most common  indices which we often here on the news are the ASX 200 and the All ords. They are still watched by investors as the bench mark indices and are an indication of where the market is travelling. The Australian Stock Exchange is a public company and is listed on it's own Exchange. It can be found under the code ASX. Every stock listed is assigned a three letter code.

The average daily turnover in dollars is around $4 billion with around 122 000 trades placed every day.

The mining stocks make up a very large portion of the index especially with the recent Mining resource boom.Some of the biggest stocks traded that make up the index include,Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, National Australia Bank and Telstra.

There are many rules regarding listing on the Australian Stock Exchange but this can be a great way for companies to expand and get new funds into their coffers.

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Investing in the stock market can be a risky task. It can also be very rewarding to the patient investor who is willing to learn the skills necessary to profit from the markets. Please make sure before investing in the stock market that you read through all the relevant materials supplied on the pages within. You can make a living trading the stock market so don't give up to early.Be patient and of course have fun.