Also known as "Euronext Paris," the Paris Bourse Stock Exchange actually spearheaded the launch of the Euronext plan, which unified several of the major European stock exchanges. Its equities trading structure is divided into four arms: the Premier Marché includes the big dogs in French and international industry, the Second Marché lists midsized corporations, the Nouveau Marché houses new corporations and the unregulated Marché Libre covers everything else.
Learn how the Euronext is structured. In September 2000, the Paris Bourse Stock Exchange became the Paris-based Euronext exchange, with subsidiary exchanges based in five other European countries. In 2006, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Group and the Euronext merged to form the NYSE Euronext.
2
Speak to your financial adviser about your personal finance plan. Determine how much money to invest in the exchange formerly known as the Paris Bourse, remembering that any wise investor knows better than to sink everything into a single place.
3
Open a trading account with a discount brokerage. Thanks to the merger of the NYSE and the Euronext, international investors have much easier access to the Paris stock exchange than they do to other major international stock markets. Thus your buy and sell requests don't necessarily have to be routed through a Paris-based broker for your order to be filled.
4
Choose a French company to invest in. The best way to find these is to track trends in the Paris exchange by reading local, English-language financial papers and following the market for a period of weeks or months. Check into a company's background the same as you would for a domestic stock: know the share's price history, review financial statements, check earnings forecasts and make a decision about which company's stock offers the best value.
5
Place an order to buy shares of the company you've decided upon through your brokerage. Use the NYSE Euronext's English homepage to get up-to-date stock quotes and follow your investment (see Resources below).
Tips & Warnings
Head to the homepage of the NYSE Euronext network for domestic access to global-market information.
The stocks and securities listed on the Nouveau Marché and Marché Libre are particularly volatile, and while the potential to realize significant profits certainly exists, dabbling in these markets is not recommended for novices.
