There was a time when checking various markets was very much something our company conecentrated their efforts on.  The need to be at the sharp end of the business world was the main aim.  The cut and thrust of business trading was done in such a way that decisions were made in seconds and you could fall so badly on your face when it went wrong.  Stockbrokers were the most important men in our little world.  We were surrounded by them.  We lived in an area near London very much known as Stockbroker belt;  our neighbours were known as financiers or bankers.   But the stockbroker would have the bigger house with the longer sweeping drive and the bigger Bentley!  Today there is so much more hanging on each action and decision.  So many stock markets too.  The main ones are london with it’s FTSE250 and 100 – these stand for financial times stock exchange index top 250 and top 100 companies;  new york, the dow jones;  tokyo;  shanghai;   hong kong.  The list goes on and amongst the leading exchanges in europe is the euronext, based primarily in the netherlands but is actually a massive pan european operation spanning netherlands, belgium, france, ireland, portugal and of course, the UK.  The amount of money being exchanged at any one time is mind boggling and it needs a very astute and calm person to be able to work in such a bear market.