What is a stock exchange?
Just as Karwan Bazar makes prices easy to compare because many sellers and buyers come to one place, a stock exchange does the same, except the goods are company shares, bonds or mutual fund units. The difference is that everything runs on strict rules: whose shares can be traded, who can place orders, how far prices can move, and when information must be published.
Today’s exchanges have no shouting traders; every order goes into a computer system. When a buyer’s price and a seller’s price meet, the system makes the trade by itself. Ordinary investors do not go to the exchange directly; they place orders through a brokerage that is a member of the exchange.
Say Rakib in Khulna wants to buy 100 shares of a company, and Nasrin in Sylhet wants to sell shares of the same company. They will never meet or even know each other’s names. Both orders go through their brokers into the exchange’s system, and if the prices meet, the trade happens. The exchange’s job is to match millions of such orders fairly. The names and story are only an example.
Why it matters to an investor
- To understand being able to sell: an exchange is why you can buy a share and later sell it to someone else. But if there are no buyers, selling can be hard; the exchange does not promise to buy.
- To know where information comes from: listed companies publish earnings, dividends and major news through the exchange. These announcements, not rumours, are the real source.
- To know the rules: trading hours, price limits and share categories are all set by the exchange and the regulator, and they directly affect your trades.
- To read “listed” correctly: being listed on an exchange means meeting certain rules, not a promise of profit.
What an exchange does
- Listing: decides, under the rules, which companies’ shares and which bonds or funds can trade there; listed companies must publish information regularly.
- Trading platform: matches the orders that come in through brokers, by price and then by time.
- Price and information: publishes the price and volume of every trade, the indices, and company announcements for everyone.
- Surveillance: looks for unusual trading, supervises member brokers, and hears complaints against brokers.
Bangladesh’s two exchanges
Bangladesh has two stock exchanges: the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE). Many companies are listed on both, so the same share can trade at slightly different prices in the two places. Above both sits the regulator, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC). Trading runs Sunday to Thursday during set hours; these have changed from time to time, and in June 2026, for example, the DSE set its main session at 10am to 2pm.
In the past the exchanges were owned by the brokers themselves, so the people who traded also ran the market. In November 2013, under the Exchanges Demutualisation Act 2013, the DSE and CSE were demutualised: ownership was separated from management, and the right to trade moved to a separate certificate (the TREC). The aim was to reduce conflicts of interest and increase transparency.
- Share categories, indices and price limits (circuit breakers) are all part of the exchange’s rules; they are covered in detail in separate lessons and pages.
Common mistakes
- Thinking the exchange or regulator will hold prices up or make good your losses. They run the market; they do not guarantee prices.
- Acting on social-media rumours without checking the exchange’s official announcements.
- Assuming any listed share can be sold in any amount at any time. In thinly traded shares there may be no buyer.
- Ignoring trading hours and holidays, and so misjudging when an order will go through or money will arrive.
A stock exchange matches buyers and sellers under rules; it runs the market and does not guarantee prices or profits.