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Stock market in Iraq
As Iraq is working towards democracy a natural part in that process is getting a fully fledged stock market up and running.

The Iraq Stock Exchange has risen from the ashes in the past two years. The market reopened on June 24, 2004, with only 15 listed companies.

There are currently a number of difficulties:

1. No stock analysts, all stock analyzing is done by the employees of the stock exchange.
2. Less than 1% of the public invests, and only a handful news papers prints stock quotes.
3. Brokers writes trades on white boards.
4. It takes 10 days or more to complete a trade because of the manual paper work involved.

Quote: “87 companies were registered, and an average 700 million shares were trading hands each session with a volume up to $2 million.”

The exchange is hoping of increased business when the electronic trading system is in place.