New York Stock Exchange
Stock Market is one of the most happening places today. People all round the globe invest a huge amount in the stock market. Some earn a lot while there are also others who loose a lot. Some people think that stock market is all about gambling but this is not entirely true. For earning profits from stock market one has to first study the market properly and only then should we start investing.
Every country has its own stock exchange through which the stock market is driven. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is the stock exchange of New York. The New York Stock Exchange is better known as the Big Board.
The origin of the NYSE can be traced to May 17, 1795. It was the date when the Buttonwood Agreement was signed by twenty-four stock brokers outside 68 Wall Street in New York under a buttonwood tree. The name was later changed to New York Stock and Exchange board on March 8, 1817, by drafting a constitution. In 1863 this name was again reviewed and was shortened to its current from, NYSE.
The first president of the New York Stock Exchange was Anthony Stockholm. You will be quite surprised to know that the first central location of the New York Stock Exchange was a room rented for $200 per month at 40 Wall Street in 1817.
Dow Jones Industrial Average is the main index of the New York Stock Exchange and was started on May 26, 1896. The NYSE Composite Index was created in more recent decades, largely to reflect the value of all stocks trading at the exchange instead of just the Dow 30.
The New York Stock Exchange is operated by the NYSE Group. The New York Stock Exchange Group was formed by a merger with the fully electronic stock exchange Archipelago Holdings. The New York Stock Exchange is now located at 11, Wall Street. It consists of five rooms where the trading is carried out. The main building of the New York Stock Exchange is also in the list of the National Register of Historic Places and is located at 18 Broad Street which is between the corners of Wall Street and Exchange Place.
The New York Stock Exchange was shut down in 1914, shortly after the beginning of the World War I. However it was not closed for a long period and reopened the very same year. The New York Stock Exchange also closed down just a few years back, after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. It was closed until September 17. People believe that the great depression period which prevailed around 1929 was the result of the black Thursday crash of the Exchange on October 24, and then the sell-of-panic on October 29, termed as the black Tuesday. To get back the confidence of the people of America, the Exchange announced a fifteen point program which was aimed at upgrading the protection of the investors. The Down Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% on October 19, 1987 in a day which is recorded as the largest one day decline in the stock exchange around the globe. It was termed as Black Monday.
The New York Stock Exchange is the largest stock exchange in United States of America in terms of dollar volume. The market capitalization of the companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange is five times than its closest competitor, NASDAQ. The popularity of the New York Stock Exchange can be easily seen from the fact that it has a global capitalization of $21 trillion which includes $7.1 trillion capital from the non-US companies.
The New York Stock Exchange basically works by the continuous auction format. This means that there is a specific location on the trading floor where all the stocks are listed and where the trade is carried out. There are exchange members who carry out buying and selling on behalf of the investors. The New York member firm has employed specialist brokers who acts as a mediator in the open outcry auction market so that buyers and sellers can interact and hence facilitate the transactions. It has been seen that most of the time natural buyers and sellers meet in a market that provides efficient price discovery in an auction environment. This is basically done so as to produce a fair price for both buyers and sellers. These days about 50% of all the transactions are carried out through the electronic media.
The New York Stock Exchange index changes every second. The lifetime high of the New York Stock Exchange till date is 8,872.63 which was achieved very recently on November 7, 2006 while the lifetime low is 347.77 points which was achieved in October 1974. The trading hours of the New York Stock Exchange are 9:30-16:00 EST from 1985. Everyone doesnt have the right to trade directly on New York Stock Exchange. One has got to have one of the 1366 seats to trade directly with NYSE. To get a seat one has to pay its price that keeps on changing. The prices of the seats vary from time to time. It has been seen that the prices of the seats fall during recession period and rise during economic expansion period. The most expensive seat sold till date on NYSE cost $625,000 in the year 1929.
The New York Stock Exchange on April 21, 2005 announced its plans to acquire Archipelago. The basic aim of this deal was to bring the NYSE into public. The governing body of the NYSE voted for the deal and it began trading under NYSE on March 8, 2006. Marsh Carter is the present chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. John Thain who is the former President of the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is the CEO of the New York Stock Exchange. The co-presidents of the NYSE are Gerald Putnam and Catherine Kinney. The New York Stock Exchange is one of the busiest places you will come across in New York. The rates of the stocks listed on New York Stock Exchange are regularly flashed on different television channels, internet and also on the big screens placed at various places in New York.
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