At 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, the chairman of the exchange, Richard Grasso, or some other top official rings the bell to close that day's trading session. When it's been a good day, people cheer. The New York Stock Exchange may be the oldest in America, but it s no longer the most active.
People race back and forth.
It's very noisy. The NYSE dates back to 1792. Back then, investors wore powdered wigs. They gathered around a buttonwood tree on Wall Street in lower Manhattan to buy and sell stocks. Wall Street once had an actual wall.