Founded several years before Confederation, The Toronto Stock Exchange has always been the marketplace for companies looking to raise capital. Growing with the nation through the years, the Exchange has helped build the Canadian economy by providing a link between people and institutions with savings to invest and companies that need money to expand.

In the early days of the TSE, fewer than two dozen companies were listed for trading and, on some days, only two or three transactions occurred. Today, the Exchange is home to more than 1400 listed companies and trades approximately $2 billion a day in share transactions. The TSE is Canada’s premier market for senior equities accounting for more than 90% of all equity trading in Canada.

The Exchange has earned a reputation as a leader in trading technology. In the 1970s, the TSE was the first exchange in the world to develop a computerized system to trade some of its stocks. In 1997 the TSE closed its trading floor in favour of electronic trading. This move made the TSE the largest exchange in North America to migrate to a floorless trading environment. The TSE also has developed market surveillance workstations that are among the most sophisticated in the world, using artificial intelligence to monitor and suggest  reasons for stock movement and change as well as alert staff to unusual trading activity.

From modest beginnings in the last century, The Toronto Stock Exchange has grown to be a leader among the world's exchanges. As such the TSE continually strives to find new and innovative ways to enhance its services and productivity in order to grow Canada’s capital markets. In June 1999,  the membership of the TSE voted overwhelmingly in favour of demutualizing the Exchange, making it a for-profit entity. This new structure will allow the TSE to compete on a more level playing field against the new electronic communication networks that are anticipated to enter the market in the new year. The TSE is also actively involved in discussions surrounding realignment of the capital markets - an initiative that would result in the TSE become the sole, senior equities exchange in the country.