MicroExchanges are lightly staffed,
technology
Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, scie ...
-driven marketplaces that have been enabled by the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...
/WWW which bring together buyers and sellers in key niche
commodity market
A commodity market is a market that trades in the primary economic sector rather than manufactured products, such as cocoa, fruit and sugar. Hard commodities are mined, such as gold and oil. Futures contracts are the oldest way of invest ...
s. The marketplaces closely resemble (but are much smaller than) conventional exchange structures. The aim of a microexchange is to reduce costs, improve returns, and facilitate trading in all sorts of physical and intangible products in financial, equity and commodity products both as underlying
cash instruments or
derivatives
The derivative of a function is the rate of change of the function's output relative to its input value.
Derivative may also refer to:
In mathematics and economics
*Brzozowski derivative in the theory of formal languages
*Formal derivative, an ...
products.
The term was first coined by
Patrick L. Young, financial innovator and author of various books including "
Capital Market Revolution!" during a book tour in 2000. Subsequently, the first "Microexchange Manifesto" was published in his 2001 book "
The Promiscuous Investor" and subsequently updated in "New Capital Market Revolution" published in 2002
Many Microexchanges have been subsequently founded. Young himself co-founded the
EOEX a market for Essential Oils in
Australia with a public announcement in December 2003 and the initial trading commencing in March 2004.
Microexchanges have also been launched for
equity trading such as the
Aruba Electronic Stock Exchange and
Pacific OTC[ Home Page http://www.pacificotc.com/]
References
Stock market