[1][2] The Securities Market which informally existed in Trinidad & Tobago for well over twenty years prior to the opening of the Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange really achieved significance in the early 1970s when the Government decided as a matter of policy to localise the foreign owned commercial banking and manufacturing sectors of the economy.

Two bodies chosen to effect this policy were the Capital Issues Committee which was set up by the Ministry of Finance in July 1970 to direct developments in the primary market and the Call Exchange (an association of share dealers) which was established under the umbrella of the Central Bank in August 1965 to monitor activities in the secondary market.

Parallel to this development in the public sector in the early 1970s was the rapid establishment of private institutions such as trust companies and stock broking firms to satisfy the demands of investors in both the primary and secondary markets.

In attempting to bring both Primary and Secondary market activity under one umbrella, the Act created confusion, and for the most part the provisions were unenforceable.

The TTSE has experienced some slowdown, both in terms of activity and listings, within the last decade, stemming from legislation which restricted institutions from holding more than 10% of their portfolio in any single company's shares.

This was further compounded by the slowdown in the Trinidad and Tobago economy stemming from depressed commodity (oil and gas) prices from 2014 onwards.

NEL is a government holding company which holds the state owned shares of the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago, Atlantic LNG (Trinidad and Tobago), TRINGEN (ammonia production) and the National Flour Mills (NFM), which in itself is separately listed on the exchange.

In addition, suggestions have been made for large multinationals operating in Trinidad and Tobago to list Depository receipt to allow wider national participation in these companies.