Let the trading begin: Dallas’ Texas Stock Exchange rings bell to mark

Gold confetti coated the floor underneath the Texas Stock Exchange‘s formidable closing bell Friday, a physical manifestation of the capital foundation provided by the likes of Goldman Sachs and Charles Schwab that made TXSE the most well-capitalized stock exchange ever when it debuted in the summer of 2024. 

Just two years later, the nascent Dallas-based is celebrating a major milestone, literally rung in Friday at the exchange’s temporary headquarters in Knox/Henderson: the complete launch of trading on TXSE’s platform. Having begun a phased launch of operations on July 6, Friday’s closing bell ceremony marked the ability to trade all the more than 13,000 stock symbols that trade in the U.S. on the Lone Star State’s homegrown exchange.

“Today is an important moment for the state of Texas and America’s capital markets. The Texas Stock Exchange has successfully completed its launch of trading and is now firmly part of the global market structure. We are recognizing this milestone because what this team and our partners have accomplished is simply remarkable,” said founder and CEO James Lee before striking the bell.

“Here’s what they’ve delivered in a mere 18 months: a fully integrated exchange that’s trading and listings at once, something that has never been done before, and the broadest day one participation of any new exchange in a half a century. This is pure infrastructure built to support what comes next: real competition for primary listings for the first time in decades,” he continued. 

On Friday, more than $700 million worth of shares were traded on TXSE, according to NasdaqTrader.com, as the exchange seeks to slowly but surely nab market share from the New York capital markets duopoly it aims to challenge. TXSE has raised more than $275 million in backing to create its own trading platform from the ground up and eventually give companies an alternative venue to list, with the goal of restoring health to public markets. 

To do so, state-of-the-art technology was the price of entry, not the Holy Grail. However, TXSE has spoken about how building its own trading engine, without the baggage of legacy code, turned into an advantage.

“Eighteen months ago, we made the decision to build our own trading platform. The requirements were to create a world-class system that can process billions of messages reliably with ultra-low latencies,” said global head of trading Cameron Smith at the bell ringing. “Today, we’re here to celebrate our success and the completion of our rollout of more than 13,000 symbols. Our incredible team accomplished this goal on schedule through hard work coupled with decades of expertise, but none of this happens alone. I’d like to thank our members, the regulators, and everyone who worked with us in launching the Texas Stock Exchange. Congratulations to the entire team for a job well done.”

With trading fully operational, TXSE will turn its sights to listings. It already has its first primary listing commitment from Dallas-based investment and asset management firm Westwood Holdings Group, which announced a forthcoming energy-centered exchange-traded fund, the Westwood Salient Enhanced Power & Infrastructure ETF, that will list on TXSE. The bourse plans to begin exchange-traded product listings in the third quarter, corporate listings in the fourth and finally initial public offerings of companies entering the market for the first time in 2027.

The course is charted as TXSE faces stiff competition from its northern rivals, which have each formed Texas-based exchanges — NYSE Texas and Nasdaq Texas — already owning dual listings like AT&T and SpaceX, respectively, and making inroads into Texas business. 

Still, though Friday’s bell ceremony may sound like the starting gun of a Y’all Street marathon to Dallas’ three stock exchanges, it’s also the dinner bell for growth that many hope all of Dallas-Fort Worth and Texas can feast on.

“On this historic day, Texas asserts its place as the financial capital of America,” said Gov. Greg Abbott in a statement. “The Texas Stock Exchange now operates at full capacity and projects the economic strength of Texas across the nation and the world. This state-of-the-art platform affirms Texas’ leadership in free enterprise and capital markets. We will make Texas stronger and more prosperous than ever before.”

July 31, 2026

Breaking Business Reporter

Sasha Richie is a business reporter for The Dallas Morning News, whose focuses include the local financial services sector, known as “Y’all Street,” corporate legal issues like reincorporation, and breaking news. She has previously worked for the news department at Car and Driver magazine and served as the sports managing editor of The Duke Chronicle. She graduated from Duke University in 2023 with a degree in Russian, a certificate in Policy, Journalism and Media Studies, and a minor in political science.