The Toronto Stock Exchange - criticized for its regulatory and listing practices and frustrated in its attempt to develop an efficient electronic trading system - has opened Stock Market Place, a tourist attraction it hopes will make everyone smarter.

Stock Market Place - a 7,700-square-foot, two-story exhibit in the heart of Toronto's financial district - is designed (according to one exchange executive) to surmount the "barriers of information" that cripple neophyte investors. Apparently this lack of market savvy - not bad management - is to blame for the poor performance of the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Stock Market Place is similar in spirit to OK's Enterprise Square. It combines interactive video kiosks with displays of old ticker tape machines and a giant electronic stock ticker that sweeps above storefront windows. In one game, "Accumulator," visitors choose five investments to see which helps them amass the largest column of enormous fake Canadian dollar coins.

Admission is 5 Canadian dollar coins for adults and 3 for students - $3.40 and $2.04, respectively, in real money.

[06/28/1998]