The Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation (TWSE) was established in 1961. As an exchange in an active financial market, TWSE offers market participants a wide range of investment instruments. These include equity securities or stocks, exchange traded funds (ETFs), warrants, real estate investment trusts (REITs) and Taiwan depository receipts (TDRs). As a product line, stocks are the most actively traded while ETFs are next. As of the end of 2016, 833 domestic companies and 59 overseas enterprises had their primary listing on TWSE. Other investment products listed on TWSE as of that same year-end were 62 ETFs, 10,208 warrants and five REITs. In addition, 19 overseas companies issued TDRs as their secondary listing on TWSE. Overseas companies using TWSE as a capital raising platform were on the rise, making up 8.56 per cent of TWSE-listed companies. As of end-2016, Taiwan's listed companies boasted total market value of NT$27.25 trillion, up NT$2.74 trillion from a year ago. The combined capital of these listed companies amounted to NT$7.02 trillion, up NT$70.8 billion year on year. The total fund riased by listed company via stock and bond are NT$282.8 billion.

To invest in the Taiwan securities market, it is important to know the three categories of legal person or legal entity. These are: qualified foreign institutional investors (QFIIs), investment trusts and self-directed investors. QFIIs weigh the most among the three in terms of trading volume.

According to the October 2017 market statistics, individual investors made up just 37 per cent of the total trading volume for that month. Having an understanding of the capital flow of legal entity investors is thus important as that does have an impact on the any investor's portfolio make-up and performance.

High turnover thematic Taiwan stocks include Foundry(TSMC2230.TT), EMS(Foxconn2317.TT) and Memory(Winbond2344.TT)