Most people's idea of stock markets is traders shouting and waving hand signals at each other on Wall Street in the movie "Trading Places".

But the reality is quite different working on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX), as operation manager Neville Caines knows only too well.

For Mr. Caines was instrumental in setting up a new trading system at the BSX as they went from using basic paper trades to a fully electronic system.

He who already had a good background in management when he joined the BSX eight years ago because he wanted a new and fresh challenge that was going to push him all the way.

"I was looking for something new, somewhat of a challenge for myself professionally and I came in and had the interview with the management and really became very interested in the possibilities that presented themselves in this company and it was something that I was looking to a part of," he said.

He was handed a remit to oversee and work with the BSX trading, settlement and depository systems to create a secure, transparent environment for the trading and safekeeping of listed stock and really bring Bermuda's capital market into the 21st century and get it international recognition.

"The position at the time was looking for someone who knew a little bit about trading, was willing to take a look at the existing systems, to learn them and to manage the team and to take the operations department forward and, indeed, to take the company forward to meet its goals in its long term plan," he said.

"And we have for a large part reached those goals - the infrastructure we have implemented is absolutely fantastic and the product that the team has managed to implement is amazing.

"We are a fully electronic trading organisation and we have a fully electronic central depository for securities and all of it is accessible from the internet, so what we have done in effect is to implement better technology that is available to other markets in most of the developed countries such as the US and Canada into Bermuda and to put Bermuda on the map in line with those other countries as far as trading is concerned."

In fact, the BSX has really gone a step beyond the striped-jacketed haggling traders that are all too commonplace in the likes of the FTSE and Dow Jones indexes, to do everything by computer. But it is all in a day's work for Mr. Caines, as he explained.

"Nothing is the same from day-to-day, which is what makes the job so exciting - because the operations department does the day-to-day operation of the Stock Exchange most of what I do is based around what the customers needs are, so it is all about anticipating their needs, meeting them in terms of trading and settlements and meeting the corporate deadlines," he said.

"The operations department in the Exchange is its own entity, but we could not do anything without the other various departments within the organisation."

The operations department works side-by-side with their listings and IT co-workers, which are integral to a successful end product, according to Mr. Caines.

"One of the biggest things is our listing department - that is the department that works with the securities to ensure that they meet the regulations before they are presented to the public prior to their listing and exchange for trading," he said.

"Once that is done we implement our processes and present it to the public in terms of availability to trading.

"But IT perhaps is the biggest department we interact with and we work so well together that you don't know where one starts and another begins."

Mr. Caines believes one of the biggest challenges of the job is making the public understand what the BSX does.

"The most challenging aspect of my job was, and indeed is, to ensure the public understands what we do," he said.

"We are the national stock exchange for Bermuda and we are involved in trading, information dissemination, training and upgrades to the system just to make the overall operation as smooth and efficient as possible for the general public.

"Just to get the public to understand what we do and to be there to facilitate their needs is what we do essentially."

And one of the most significant changes he has seen during his time in the role has been the transition to the new system and the development of the BSX as a whole.

"With the Exchange, for me the most exciting thing was the moment when I finally realised what we were building here," he said.

"What we do is extremely specialised in that there are only so many exchanges in the world.

"It was all about where we were going and how we could get there and what it would mean, not only for the Exchange, but Bermuda, and it infused my enthusiasm and excited me to the point I was excited to come in and do what I do to deal with all the stresses of the job and it gave me an extra boost.

"The opportunities for myself and the future of the country in terms of what we are trying to build are so great with the Exchange and the emphasis is on trading and the opportunities for the general public to own a slice of Bermuda in this new area of security trading and globalisation and just to see the bigger picture and how we play a part are tremendous."

In the future Mr. Caines would like to see the BSX grow and prosper as it has done so successfully up until this point and play a further part in its ever developing history.

"The measure of anything is growth and personally I think this would be no different with the Exchange," he said.

"Here in Bermuda we have a reputation for doing as well as we can and performing with excellence and the Exchange is doing that even now, so growth is something I would like love to see and to see the Exchange take its place, not only in Bermuda, but on the world stage.

"We are offering great products now and if we can expand that and grow our infrastructure further we can look forward to a bright future."