The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange fulfils a major role in the Israeli economy and is a key  player in the nation's economic growth. It is the home turf on which corporate Israel raises capital to finance investments and activities, and for the government to bring the public into its companies as they are privatized. The state-of-the-art exchange is also home to the local investment community and securities sector. Today the market has become an advanced, top of the line venue for trading in securities of all types.

Multiple reforms have opened the Israeli market to the world, and brought the world to the Israeli investor. Yet the advanced technology and the sophistication of its wares, assure that the TASE will remain a vital trading arena for Israeli and foreign investors alike.

Local trade in securities began in the 1930s, years before the formation of the State of Israel. Trade was carried out through the Exchange Bureau for Securities, founded by the Anglo-Palestine Bank (which became Bank Leumi Le-Israel) in 1935.

With the formation of the State of Israel in 1948, a pressing need arose to formalize trade in securities. In September 1953, a number of banks and brokerages joined forces and established the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Since the mid-1990s the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) has been adapting to meet the standards of the most advanced exchanges in the world. Physical trading floors, long abolished, have been replaced by a computerized system, the TACT (Tel Aviv Continuous Trading), allowing transaction orders to flow in real time. The TACT handles trade in all forms of securities: stocks, convertible securities, corporate and government bonds, short-term certificates (T-bills known in Israel as Makams), index options and futures, currency options and futures and a variety of securities derivatives such as Index Linked Notes (ILNs), reverse certificates and covered warrants.