Liberal Forum

A new rival to Wall Street officially debuted on Friday as the Texas Stock Exchange went fully live for the first time with trading available for all of its listed tickers.The Texas Stock Exchange, which is based in Dallas, is the first new major stock exchange to launch in the U.S. in decades. The TXSE, called the "Tex-ee," is looking to compete with the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Composite for listings.The exchange boasts several prominent financial backers, including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and Charles Schwab, among others.It currently plans to begin corporate listings later this year and intends to facilitate initial public offerings (IPOs) starting in 2027. The TXSE sees the economic rise of Texas and a broader swath of the South that it's calling the "Boom Belt" as being the "center of gravity for American capitalism" and a market it can tap into for IPOs.

"As the only primary corporate and ETP listings venue built and headquartered in the Boom Belt, TXSE is both a product of the region's rise and a catalyst to accelerate it," TXSE explained.The company's website notes the region has an annualized GDP of $8.9 trillion – more than all world economies other than the U.S. and China. It adds that 40% of American exports pass through the Boom Belt, while 57% of U.S. job growth has occurred in the region in the last five years.Currently, the exchange is operating from temporary offices in the Uptown neighborhood of Dallas, where it will hold a bell-ringing ceremony Friday afternoon to mark its official launch.