A securities exchange that specializes in the stocks and bonds of companies with a regional, rather than a national, interest. The regional exchanges provide the only organized trading in many of these securities. They also list and trade many of the securities traded on one or more of the national exchanges; in recent years, the majority of trading on the regional exchanges has been in these dual-listed securities. The major regional exchanges in the United States are the Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia stock exchanges.
