Vancouver Stock Exchange

The trading floor of the Vancouver Stock Exchange in May or June of 1976.

1976 — Rich Pomper completing a trade with John Woods on the trading floor of the Vancouver Stock Exchange on Howe Street in May or June of 1976.

The Vancouver Stock Exchange doesn’t exist anymore but during the 1950’s until the 1990’s it was one of the most notorious stock exchanges in the world. It had few rules and most of these were ignored, making millions for insiders while leaving everyone else with a tax loss. Its specialty was mining stocks, especially gold and copper. The stocks thrived on rumour and dived on news. In a 1989 exposé Forbes magazine called it the “scam capital of the world”.

The early pictures were taken over a number of days in May and June 1976 when the exchange was located on Howe Street. A selection appeared in the Vancouver Province newspaper July 3rd, 1976. The later pictures are from 1982. Many of these were used by artist Gordon Halloran in his commemorative painting of the trading floor commissioned by John Woods.

The Vancouver exchange was taken over by the Toronto Stock Exchange in 1999 and renamed the Canadian Venture Exchange.

These pictures are now available as a print on demand 11×13 inch hard cover book by clicking on this link to Blurb Book Publishing.

Updated: October 3, 2020 — 9:49 am