Would you invest in Iraq's stock exchange?

Did you know that Iraq still has a stock exchange? It's no NYSE or NASDAQ, but amazingly, it's still in business amid all the violence. Herewith, a brief photographic tour.

The Iraq Stock Exchange (ISX) launched trading in June 2004 under the oversight of the independent Iraq Securities Commission. Although the exchange has moved from its initial makeshift location in a disused hotel to a new sandstone building in southeast Baghdad, employees—lacking computer screens and electronic stock index boards—still write stock prices out by hand.

Trading on the ISX is held every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., up from just two days of trading earlier this year. More than 80 companies are now listed on the bourse.

The performance of the ISX has fluctuated significantly since 2004, with heavy losses incurred last year. But traders hope that opening the exchange to foreign investors, which began this week, will boost share prices.

(All photographs by SABAH ARAR/AFP/Getty Images)