The Canadian Venture Exchange was created in Canada on November 29, 1999 as a result of an agreement among the Vancouver, Alberta, Toronto and Montreal exchanges to restructure the Canadian capital markets along the lines of market specialization.
The CDNX was created by the merger of the Vancouver Stock Exchange (VSE) and the Alberta Stock Exchange (ASE). The focus of the CDNX was junior companies, ie, those whose assets, business and market capitalization were too small to be listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). Often, these were resource exploration companies, but also came to include new high technology ventures. The exchange had its corporate headquarters in Calgary, Alberta, and its Operations headquarters in Vancouver , British Columbia , with additional offices in Toronto and Montreal .
The Winnipeg Stock Exchange and the small-cap portion of the equities market of the Bourse de Montréal (MSE) were also later merged into the CDNX.