Today, ASX has an average daily turnover of A$4.685 billion and a market capitalisation of around A$1.6 trillion, making it one of the world's top 20 listed exchange groups, and the largest in the southern hemisphere.

It also oversees compliance with its operating rules, promotes standards of corporate governance among Australia's listed companies and helps to educate retail investors.

The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) has responsibility for the supervision of real-time trading on Australia's domestic licensed financial markets and the supervision of the conduct by participants (including the relationship between participants and their clients) on those markets.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has oversight of the ASX's clearing and settlement facilities for financial system stability.

Products and services available for trading on ASX include shares, futures, exchange traded options, warrants, contracts for difference, exchange-traded funds, real estate investment trusts, listed investment companies and interest rate securities.

Exchange employees called "chalkies" wrote bids and offers in chalk on blackboards continuously, and recorded transactions made.

1861: Ten years after the official advent of the Gold Rush, Australia's first stock exchange was formed in Melbourne.

Since 1903 the state stock exchanges had met on an informal basis, but in 1936 Sydney took the lead in formalising the association.

Through the AASE the exchanges gradually brought in common listing requirements for companies and uniform brokerage and other rules for stockbroking firms.

1939: Sydney Stock Exchange closed for the first time due to the declaration of World War II.

Its original goal was to provide Australian wool traders with hedging facilities in their own country.

SGWFE offered a single contract of greasy wool that by the end of the year had traded 19,042 lots.

1969–1970: The Poseidon bubble (a mining boom triggered by a nickel discovery in Western Australia) caused Australian mining shares to soar and then crash, prompting regulatory recommendations that ultimately led to Australia's national companies and securities legislation.

Damage totaled $2 million and repairs took more than six months, with new carpet laid and cables and computers replaced.

'Chalkies' were employed by the Stock Exchange and it was their function to record in chalk the bids and offers of the operators (employees of stockbrokers) and the sales made.

The Australian Mutual Provident Society began in 1849 as an organisation offering life insurance.

2000: In October, ASX acquires a 15% stake in the trading and order management software company IRESS (formerly BridgeDFS Ltd).

It is globally distributed with network access points (gateways) located in Chicago, New York, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and Melbourne.

[13] The market opens alphabetically in Single-price auctions, phased over the first ten minutes, with a small random time built in to prevent exact prediction of the first trades.

LEPOs can serve as an equivalent, while contracts for difference (CFDs) offered by third-party providers are another alternative.

In September 2008, ASIC suspended nearly all forms of short selling due to concerns about market stability during the 2007–2008 financial crisis.

A market maker may choose one or both of: In both cases there is a minimum quantity (5 or 10 contracts depending on the shares) and a maximum spread permitted.

These securities are traded and settled in the same way as ordinary shares, but the ASX provides information such as their maturity, effective interest rate, etc., to aid comparison.

There is a hierarchy of index groups called the S&P/ASX 20, S&P/ASX 50, S&P/ASX 100, S&P/ASX 200 and S&P/ASX 300, notionally containing the 20, 50, 100, 200 and 300 largest companies listed on the exchange, subject to some qualifications.

Participants receive a hypothetical $50,000 to buy and sell shares in 150 companies and track the progress of their investments over the duration of the game.