
This visual of the world’s biggest stock markets is basically a map of where global money sleeps at night. In one glance you see who actually moves the needle when markets twitch. Use this as your cheat sheet for which exchanges matter, and which headlines you can safely ignore.
BlackRock builds core global portfolios around the US, China, Japan, and UK exchanges, then sprinkles in exposure to the remaining markets for diversification and factor tilts.
Vanguard packages these top exchanges into simple world-index ETFs so retail investors quietly hold slices of all 12 markets without thinking about individual exchanges.