Hamburg Stock Exchange (HAM)

The Hamburg Stock Exchange is a stock exchange that was located in Hamburg, Germany.

The Hamburg Stock Exchange traded stocks, bonds and other securities and was a financial pillar of the city. It offered investment plans such as FONDS-X that impacted both open and closed-end funds. The Hamburg Stock Exchange was sometimes abbreviated as HAM and shortened to be called simply the Hamburg Exchange.

The HAM was the oldest stock exchange in Germany, founded in 1558. The Hamburg Stock Exchange merged with the Hanover Stock Exchange in 1999 to form the BOAG Borgen AG. However, the Frankfurt exchange has made the new entity virtually obsolete. The former exchange ran from 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Today, the Hamburg Exchange operates under the umbrella of the Hamburger Borse, which runs the Stock Exchange, the Insurance Exchange, the General Exchange, The Grain Exchange, and the Information Exchanges. According to the Hamburg Borse website, the exchange now operates in everything from trading open and closed-end funds to face-to-face meetings on the trading floor.

The history of the Hamburg Stock Exchange can be traced back to 1558, when the merchants of Hamburg were granted access to host daily meetings at the Trost bridge from the Ehrbarer Rat dieser guten Stadt Hamburg, which loosely translates into the phrase of: the respectable Council of this good city of Hamburg. The Trost bridge was located in the port of Hamburg at the time, so it was an important area for merchant exchanges and business transactions. Most of the transactions at the time were product-based, but the beginning of financial transactions and paper exchanges began at the time.

In 1815, the Hamburg Exchange began to deal in regular securities trading and with that landmark year, the Exchange became the oldest German stock exchange, with eight total German stock exchanges. Then, in 1999, the Exchange joined with the Hanover Stock Exchange of Lower Saxony and both exchanges operate under BÖAG Börsen AG as their umbrella company. The Hamburg Exchange is now a market leader in closed-ends funding trading on the secondary market.

The Hamburg Exchange prides itself on its history and one of the trademarks of the Hamburg Stock Exchange is its adherence to the values started back in 1558, such as the classic business handshake that marks many of the stock exchanges and transactions.