The Year of Y'all Street: The New Texas Stock Exchange Gives New York a Run For Its Money
Backed by major institutions and a booming state economy, the TXSE is positioning itself as a pro-business, anti-Woke alternative to the NYSE and Nasdaq.
by Peter C. Earle
January 7, 2026
For more than a century, U.S. stock listings have been dominated by two addresses: Wall Street’s New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq’s MarketSite in Times Square. That may soon change. On Sept. 30, 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved the Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE) to operate as a national securities exchange.
Headquartered in Dallas and backed by major financial institutions, TXSE plans to begin trading in early 2026 — marking the first serious challenge in decades to the entrenched exchange duopoly and opening a new chapter for U.S. capital markets.
Texas offers both symbolism and substance for such an endeavor. With roughly $2.7 trillion in annual economic output, the state represents about one-tenth of the entire U.S. economy. It is home to more than one-tenth of the nation’s publicly listed companies, and its mix of rapid growth, favorable taxes, and business-friendly regulation makes it a natural candidate for a financial hub.
The creation of a new national exchange in Dallas isn’t just a regional milestone — it’s a sign that financial innovation is no longer bound to Manhattan’s geography or culture. The Texas Stock Exchange is aimed at reintroducing competition into a sector that has grown listless, consolidated, and Woke. It’s undoubtedly true that the existing exchanges have played a crucial role in maintaining transparency and corporate accountability; their listing standards have strengthened governance and investor protections.
Yet those same regulatory frameworks have also drifted into areas far removed from financial performance. In recent years, both the NYSE and Nasdaq have woven social and political priorities — ESG requirements that politicize investment to the detriment of investors and companies alike — into disclosure and board-composition rules. They are costly distractions from capital formation, and advance elite political agendas using other people’s — including retirees’ — money.
The TXSE proposes a politics-neutral approach: maintaining high financial and ethical standards while allowing firms to focus on profitability, innovation, and shareholder value.
The competitive value of that alone could represent an enormous threat to New York in the age of Mamdani. And it gets better.
