<p>Nowadays when you buy stock you do not get piece of paper saying you own the stock.</p>
<p>Rather you will trade via brokerage account or retirement account etc, that then holds your stock.</p>
<p>If stock market gets closed it is not directly possible for you to trade those stocks anymore. For example, I can't see any way how would you do it with your retirement account. With a brokerage account I can imagine you selling the whole account but then you have to sell all stocks at the same time.</p>
<p>It would be technically possible to build whole new infrastructure for peer to peer trading. In principle that should be <em>technologically</em> feasible. But that would take time and money and stock trading is also regulated so it might not be feasible economically and legally especially if the market is closed just temporarily.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-03-09T12:15:43.210Z
That does make some sense; legalities and such at least
Anju Maaka
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-03-09T11:22:44.817Z
2022-03-09T11:22:44.817Z
1muflon1
<p>A question I've had since hearing of the Russian stock exchange being closed, and how this will likely cause a severe drop in their stock values <strong>once it opens again</strong>, is <em>how does a closed stock exchange stop people from trading their stocks?</em></p>
<p>I'm sure there is some reason for it, but I can't figure it out. If all the estate brokers were to close that wouldn't stop people from buying/selling houses. It would certainly make it harder to link the sellers with appropriate buyers, but it wouldn't make it impossible. So why are stocks different?</p>

<stock-market>
How does a closed Stock Exchange stop people selling/buying
Anju Maaka
# How does a closed Stock Exchange stop people selling/buying

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-03-09)

A question I've had since hearing of the Russian stock exchange being closed, and how this will likely cause a severe drop in their stock values **once it opens again**, is *how does a closed stock exchange stop people from trading their stocks?*

I'm sure there is some reason for it, but I can't figure it out. If all the estate brokers were to close that wouldn't stop people from buying/selling houses. It would certainly make it harder to link the sellers with appropriate buyers, but it wouldn't make it impossible. So why are stocks different?

**Tags:** stock-market

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2022-03-09. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

Nowadays when you buy stock you do not get piece of paper saying you own the stock.

Rather you will trade via brokerage account or retirement account etc, that then holds your stock.

If stock market gets closed it is not directly possible for you to trade those stocks anymore. For example, I can't see any way how would you do it with your retirement account. With a brokerage account I can imagine you selling the whole account but then you have to sell all stocks at the same time.

It would be technically possible to build whole new infrastructure for peer to peer trading. In principle that should be *technologically* feasible. But that would take time and money and stock trading is also regulated so it might not be feasible economically and legally especially if the market is closed just temporarily.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: That does make some sense; legalities and such at least  

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