I've always been intrigued by the idea of various marketplaces of financial activity, likened to houses of gambling. Someone well versed in stock exchanges, co

I've always been intrigued by the idea of various marketplaces of financial activity, likened to houses of gambling. Someone well versed in stock exchanges, commodity exchanges, currency exchanges, insurance exchanges, rare metal / mineral exchanges etc. can chime in: What is a good "house" (a marketplace for goods and/or financial instruments) that does not change the rules - or changes them very rarely - and has generally stood the test of time? Can currency markets be gamed - by governments or other control bodies - so that a repeat of the Black Wednesday[1] is all but minimized? I am really interested in how financial markets deal with these kinds of quandaries, where a Soros[2] like figure could potentially manipulate an event to his favor. If they put in place too many fail-safe mechanisms, 'players' may be turned away and may want to 'gamble' at another house. Too few, then the 'house' gets taken to the cleaners. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Soros#Currency_speculation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Soros#Currency_speculati... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Wednesday http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Wednesday