If you love the fast moving world of finance, are fascinated by stock markets and love travelling too – these are the five cities you must visit.

1. New York

You’ve seen the film, now visit the street – Wall Street of course. There are lots of walking tours of Wall Street and in the best of them, real Street insiders will show you the Federal Reserve, the New York Stock Exchange and all those other institutions that you hear about on the news. Lower Manhattan is full of narrow streets and while you walk them, you’ll get to hear amazing stories about life in the financial trenches.

None of that “lunch is for wimps” nonsense. You need to head for one of the eateries where the traders and dealmakers eat. Who knows? You could pick up a stock tip or two. And watch those forex rates – dollar sterling or dollar euro prices can provide a free lunch if they move the right way.

2. London

You can also take finance tours in London but for a first-hand look at the international hub that is the City of London, go to the sandwich bars at lunchtime and see just how fast it’s possible to serve people. The City is amazingly historic, yet it’s the busiest finance and insurance centre in the world. London lives and breathes trade and finance and it’s truly international.

The highly rated CMC Markets online trading platform, is just one of the businesses that now only operate online. Yet the City of London is as busy as it ever was. And because the shops in the City cater for finance types they are really worth exploring – even though some of them are somewhat expensive. But a great place to find a present for the financial enthusiast in your life.

3. Tokyo

A must for financial enthusiasts is the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s “Arrows” facility. This has opened since the trading floor went online. As you might imagine, it’s full of great big screens displaying prices and volumes in real time, and there are about 50 exchange employees monitoring them. Private investors can visit an “Information Terrace” to get information about companies.

But the other great draw in Tokyo, is to see the latest robotics and gadgets. It’s a great way to get early market insights on the hot new products that may move share prices. If the forex rates on the yen look good, you could even bring home a robot.

4. Singapore

The Singapore Stock Exchange welcomes students from overseas countries, to visit the Exchange. Not just that, they have technicians helping students to construct a portfolio by using the Exchange’s Stock Facts interface to select stocks. As well as lectures, there’s apparently an Academy which provides professional finance training and investor education. This all sounds very organised, as we might expect from Singaporeans.

But let’s face it, the other reason to go is the fantastic food you can look forward to after your finance lecture!

5. Shanghai

The Shanghai stock exchange is a non-profit organisation, so that’s completely different from the others. It’s not somewhere for outsiders or amateurs, but it certainly helps to give Shanghai some of its buzz. The Chinese government is currently very angry about “crocodiles” – these are people who are submerged like crocodiles, but come out and suddenly cause mayhem in the market.

That’s a roundup of the five best cities for financial fanatics and all of them share the buzz that being a financial centre gives to a city.