the TSE, some preliminary observations

The Tokyo stock exchange is weirrd. Well, you know... not weird, just differently-abled.

For example, the 2,351 stocks listed on the TSE are broken into three parts: the 1st and 2nd sections plus "mothers". The 1st section is built of the blue chips of japan... the Topix index documents strictly this section and comprised of just under 1700 different stocks, over 70% of the market. The 2nd section is a little nebulous, but is made up of 500 or so smaller cap, or illiquid stocks. The remaining index, Mothers (ya got me), is the wild west of the TSE, with 151 listed companies as of last market close. Different listing criteria means much smaller, much more volatile stocks.
But volatility is in the eye of the beholder. The TSE has a couple of special rules to prevent volatility, most notably "daily price limits". Generally a stock's value cannot change from the previous day's closing price by more than a certain amount. That value is a static number based on the closing day's price. For example if the stock finished the prior trading day between 10,000 and 20,000 yen, the following day's tading value will be restricted to a range between 2,000 more and 2,000 less than the previous day's close. So some stocks can't move more than 10% in a given day, while others can move as much as 20%. Consequently, the biggest moving stocks are always restricted by their daily limits... if you watch that kind of thing.

As I study up to find out more about how the TSE works, I'm finding out a lot about how the American markets work too. I didn't come into this a total rube though.

(how's that for breadth of subject matter!)