New York Stock Exchange

TheNew York Stock Exchange(NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board")is an Americanstock exchangein theFinancial DistrictofLower ManhattaninNew York City. It is thelargest stock exchange in the worldbymarket capitalization,exceeding $25 trillion in July 2024.The NYSE is owned byIntercontinental Exchange, an American holding company that it also lists (ticker symbol ICE). Previously, it was part of NYSE Euronext (NYX), which was formed by the NYSE's 2007 merger withEuronext.According to aGalluppoll conducted in 2022, approximately 58% of American adults reported having money invested in the stock market, either through individual stocks,mutual funds, orretirement accounts.
The earliest recorded organization ofsecuritiestrading in New York amongbrokersdirectly dealing with each other can be traced to theButtonwood Agreement. Previously, securities exchange had been intermediated by theauctioneers, who also conducted more mundane auctions ofcommoditiessuch as wheat and tobacco.On May 17, 1792, twenty-four brokers signed the Buttonwood Agreement, which set a floor commission rate charged to clients and bound the signers to give preference to the other signers in securities sales. The earliest securities traded were mostly governmental securities such as War Bonds from the Revolutionary War andFirst Bank of the United Statesstock,althoughBank of New Yorkstock was a non-governmental security traded in the early days.TheBank of North America, along with the First Bank of the United States and the Bank of New York, were the first shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
In 1817, the stockbrokers of New York, operating under theButtonwood Agreement, instituted new reforms and reorganized. After sending a delegation toPhiladelphiato observe the organization of their board of brokers, restrictions on manipulative trading were adopted, as well as formal organs of governance.After re-forming as the New York Stock and Exchange Board, the broker organization began renting out space exclusively for securities trading, which previously had been taking place at theTontine Coffee House. Several locations were used between 1817 and 1865, when the present location was adopted.
The invention of theelectrical telegraphconsolidated markets and New York's market rose to dominance over Philadelphia after weathering some market panics better than other alternatives.TheOpen Board of Stock Brokerswas established in 1864 as a competitor to the NYSE. With 354 members, the Open Board of Stock Brokers rivaled the NYSE in membership (which had 533) "because it used a more modern, continuous trading system superior to the NYSE's twice-daily call sessions". The Open Board of Stock Brokers merged with the NYSE in 1869. Robert Wright ofBloombergwrites that the merger increased the NYSE's members as well as trading volume, as "several dozen regional exchanges were also competing with the NYSE for customers. Buyers, sellers and dealers all wanted to complete transactions as quickly and cheaply as technologically possible and that meant finding the markets with the most trading, or the greatest liquidity in today's parlance. Minimizing competition was essential to keep a large number of orders flowing, and the merger helped the NYSE maintain its reputation for providing superior liquidity."TheCivil Wargreatly stimulated speculative securities trading in New York. By 1869, membership had to be capped, and has been sporadically increased since. The latter half of the nineteenth century saw rapid growth in securities trading.
Securities trade in the latter nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was prone to panics and crashes. Government regulation of securities trading was eventually seen as necessary, with arguably the most dramatic changes occurring in the 1930s after a major stock market crash precipitated theGreat Depression. The NYSE has also imposed additional rules in response to shareholder protection controls, e.g. in 2012, the NYSE imposed rules restricting brokers from voting uninstructed shares.
TheStock Exchange Luncheon Clubwas situated on the seventh floor from 1898 until its closure in 2006.
On April 21, 2005, the NYSE announced its plans to merge withArchipelagoin a deal intended to reorganize the NYSE as a publicly traded company. NYSE's governing board voted to merge with rival Archipelago on December 6, 2005, and became a for-profit, public company. It began trading under the name NYSE Group on March 8, 2006. On April 4, 2007, the NYSE Group completed its merger with Euronext, the European combined stock market, thus formingNYSE Euronext, the first transatlantic stock exchange.
Wall Street is the leading U.S. money center for international financial activities and the foremost U.S. location for the conduct of wholesale financial services. "It comprises a matrix of wholesale financial sectors, financial markets, financial institutions, and financial industry firms" (Robert, 2002). The principal sectors are securities industry, commercial banking, asset management, and insurance.
Prior to the acquisition of NYSE Euronext by the ICE in 2013, Marsh Carter was the Chairman of the NYSE and the CEO wasDuncan Niederauer. Currently,the chairman is Jeffrey Sprecher.In 2016, NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange Inc. earned $419 million in listings-related revenues.
The exchange was closed shortly after the beginning of World War I (July 31, 1914), but it partially re-opened on November 28 of that year in order to help the war effort by tradingbonds,and completely reopened for stock trading on December 12, 1914.
On September 16, 1920, theWall Street bombingoccurred outside the building, killing forty people and injuring hundreds more.
TheBlack Thursdaycrash of the Exchange on October 24, 1929, and the sell-off panic which started onBlack Tuesday, October 29, are often blamed for precipitating theGreat Depression. In an effort to restore investor confidence, the Exchange unveiled a fifteen-point program aimed to upgrade protection for the investing public on October 31, 1938.
On October 1, 1934, the exchange was registered as a national securities exchange with theU.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, with a president and a thirty-three-member board. On February 18, 1971, the non-profit corporation was formed, and the number of board members was reduced to twenty-five.
One ofAbbie Hoffman's well-known publicity stunts took place  in 1967, when he led members of theYippiemovement to the Exchange's gallery. The provocateurs hurled fistfuls of dollars toward the trading floor below. Some traders booed, and some laughed and waved. Three months later the stock exchange enclosed the gallery with bulletproof glass.Hoffman wrote a decade later, "We didn't call the press; at that time we really had no notion of anything called a media event."
On October 19, 1987, theDow Jones Industrial Average(DJIA) dropped 508 points, a 22.6% loss in a single day, the second-biggest one-day drop the exchange had experienced.Black Mondaywas followed by Terrible Tuesday, a day in which the Exchange's systems did not perform well and some people had difficulty completing their trades.
Subsequently, there was another major drop for the Dow on October 13, 1989—theMini-Crash of 1989. The crash was apparently caused by a reaction to a news story of a $6.75 billion leveraged buyout deal for UAL Corporation, the parent company ofUnited Airlines, which broke down. When the UAL deal fell through, it helped trigger the collapse of thejunk bondmarket causing the Dow to fall 190.58 points, or 6.91 percent.
Similarly, there was a panic in the financial world during the year of 1997; theAsian Financial Crisis. Like the fall of many foreign markets, the Dow suffered a 7.18% drop in value (554.26 points) on October 27, 1997, in what later became known as the1997 Mini-Crashbut from which the DJIA recovered quickly. This was the first time that the "circuit breaker" rule had operated.
On January 26, 2000, an altercation during filming of the music video forRage Against the Machine's "Sleep Now in the Fire", directed byMichael Moore, caused the doors of the exchange to be closed and the band to be escorted from the site by securityafter the members attempted to gain entry into the exchange.
In theaftermath of the September 11 attacks, the NYSE was closed for four trading sessions, resuming on Monday, September 17, one of the rare times the NYSE was closed for more than one session and only the third time since March 1933. On the first day, the NYSE suffered a 7.1% drop in value (684 points); after a week, it dropped by 14% (1,370 points). An estimated $1.4 trillion was lost within five days of trading.The NYSE was only 5 blocks fromGround Zero.
On May 6, 2010, the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its largest intraday percentage drop since the crash on October 19, 1987, with a 998-point loss later being called the2010 Flash Crash(as the drop occurred in minutes before rebounding). The SEC and CFTC published a report on the event, although it did not come to a conclusion as to the cause. The regulators found no evidence that the fall was caused by erroneous ("fat finger") orders.
On October 29, 2012, the stock exchange was shut down for two days due toHurricane Sandy.The last time the stock exchange was closed due to weather for a full two days was on March 12 and 13, 1888.
On May 1, 2014, the stock exchange was fined $4.5 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle charges that it had violated market rules.
On August 14, 2014,Berkshire Hathaway's A Class shares, the highest priced shares on the NYSE, hit $200,000 a share for the first time.
On July 8, 2015, technical issues affected the stock exchange, halting trading at 11:32 am ET. The NYSE reassured stock traders that the outage was "not a result of a cyber breach", and theDepartment of Homeland Securityconfirmed that there was "no sign of malicious activity".Trading eventually resumed at 3:10 pm ET the same day.
On May 25, 2018,Stacey Cunningham, the NYSE's chief operating officer, became the Big Board's 67th president, succeeding Thomas Farley.She is the first female leader in the exchange's 226-year history.
In March 2020, the NYSE announced plans to temporarily move to all-electronic trading on March 23, 2020, due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.Along with thePHLXand theBSE, the NYSE reopened on May 26, 2020.
The mainNew York Stock Exchange Building, built in 1903, is at 18 Broad Street, between the corners of Wall Street and Exchange Place, and was designed in theBeaux Artsstyle byGeorge B. Post.The adjacent structure at 11 Wall Street, completed in 1922, was designed in a similar style byTrowbridge & Livingston. The buildings were both designated aNational Historic Landmarkin 1978.18 Broad Street is also aNew York City designated landmark.
The New York Stock Exchange is closed onNew Year's Day,Martin Luther King Jr. Day,Washington's Birthday,Good Friday,Memorial Day,Juneteenth National Independence Day,Independence Day,Labor Day,Thanksgiving, andChristmas. When those holidays occur on a weekend, the holiday is observed on the closest weekday. In addition, the Stock Exchange closes early on the day before Independence Day, the day after Thanksgiving, and Christmas Eve.The NYSE averages about 253trading daysper year.
The New York Stock Exchange (sometimes referred to as "The Big Board")provides a means for buyers and sellers totradesharesofstockin companies registered for public trading. The NYSE is open for trading Monday through Friday from 9:30 am – 4:00 pmET, with the exception of holidays declared by the Exchange in advance.Proposals for round-the-clock trading have been considered by NYSE.
The NYSE trades in a continuous auction format, where traders can execute stock transactions on behalf of investors. They will gather around the appropriate post where a specialist broker, who is employed by a NYSE member firm (that is, they are not an employee of the New York Stock Exchange), acts as an auctioneer in anopen outcryauction market environment to bring buyers and sellers together and to manage the actual auction. They do on occasion (approximately 10% of the time) facilitate the trades by committing their own capital and as a matter of course disseminate information to the crowd that helps to bring buyers and sellers together. The auction process moved toward automation in 1995 through the use of wireless handheld computers (HHC). The system enabled traders to receive and execute orders electronically via wireless transmission. On September 25, 1995, NYSE member Michael Einersen, who designed and developed this system, executed 1000 shares of IBM through this HHC ending a 203-year process of paper transactions and ushering in an era of automated trading.
As of January 24, 2007, all NYSE stocks can be traded via its electronichybrid market(except for a small group of very high-priced stocks). Customers can now send orders for immediate electronic execution, or route orders to the floor for trade in the auction market. In the first three months of 2007, in excess of 82% of all order volume was delivered to the floor electronically.NYSE works with US regulators such as theSECandCFTCto coordinate risk management measures in the electronic trading environment through the implementation of mechanisms like circuit breakers and liquidity replenishment points.
Following theBlack Mondaymarket crash in 1987, NYSE imposedtrading curbsto reduce market volatility and massive panic sell-offs. Following the 2011 rule change, at the start of each trading day, the NYSE sets three circuit breaker levels at levels of 7% (Level 1), 13% (Level 2), and 20% (Level 3) of the average closing price of theS&P 500for the preceding trading day. Level 1 and Level 2 declines result in a 15-minute trading halt unless they occur after 3:25 pm, when no trading halts apply. A Level 3 decline results in trading being suspended for the remainder of the day.(The biggest one-day decline in the S&P 500 since 1987 was the 11.98% drop onMarch 16, 2020.)
Until 2005, the right to directly trade shares on the exchange was conferred upon owners of a limited number of "seats". The term comes from the fact that up until the 1870s NYSE members sat in chairs to trade. In 1868, the number of seats was fixed at 533, and this number was increased several times over the years. In 1953, the number of seats was set permanently at 1,366.
These seats were a sought-after commodity as they conferred the ability to directly trade stock on the NYSE, and seat holders were commonly referred to as members of the NYSE. Seat prices varied widely over the years, generally falling during recessions and rising during economic expansions. In January 1927 the cost of seat reached a then-record $185,000.The most expensive inflation-adjusted seat was sold in 1929 for $625,000, which, today, would be over six million dollars. In recent times, seats have sold for as high as $4 million in the late 1990s and as low as $1 million in 2001. In 2005, seat prices shot up to $3.25 million as the exchange entered into an agreement to merge with Archipelago and became a for-profit, publicly traded company. Seat owners received $500,000 in cash per seat and 77,000 shares of the newly formed corporation. The NYSE now sells one-year licenses to trade directly on the exchange. Licenses forfloor tradingare available for $40,000 and a license for bond trading is available for as little as $1,000 as of 2010.Neither are resellable, but may be transferable during a change of ownership of a corporation holding a trading license.
The Barnes family is the only known lineage to have five generations of NYSE members: Winthrop H. Barnes (admitted 1894), Richard W.P. Barnes (admitted 1926), Richard S. Barnes (admitted 1951), Robert H. Barnes (admitted 1972), Derek J. Barnes (admitted 2003).
In the mid-1960s, theNYSE CompositeIndex(NYSE: NYA) was created, with a base value of 50 points equal to the 1965 yearly close.This was done to reflect the value of all stocks trading at the exchange, in contrast with the then predominantDow Jones Industrial Averagewhich tracks just 30 stocks. To raise the profile of the composite index, in 2003, the NYSE set its new base value of 5,000 points equal to the 2002 yearly close. Its close at the end of 2013 was 10,400.32.
In October 2008,NYSE Euronextcompleted acquisition of theAmerican Stock Exchange(AMEX) for $260 million in stock.
On February 15, 2011, NYSE andDeutsche Börseannounced their merger to form a new company, as yet unnamed, whereinDeutsche Börseshareholders would have 60% ownership of the new entity, andNYSE Euronextshareholders would have 40%.
On February 1, 2012, theEuropean Commissionblocked the merger of NYSE withDeutsche Börse, after commissionerJoaquín Almuniastated that the merger "would have led to a near-monopoly in European financial derivatives worldwide".Instead,Deutsche Börseand NYSE would have to sell either theirEurexderivatives orLIFFEshares in order to not create a monopoly. On February 2, 2012, NYSE Euronext andDeutsche Börseagreed to scrap the merger.
In April 2011,Intercontinental Exchange(ICE), an Americanfutures exchange, andNASDAQ OMX Grouphad together made anunsolicited proposalto buy NYSE Euronext for approximatelyUS$11,000,000,000, a deal in which NASDAQ would have taken control of the stock exchanges.NYSE Euronext rejected this offer twice, but it was finally terminated after theUnited States Department of Justiceindicated their intention to block the deal due toantitrustconcerns.
In December 2012, ICE had proposed to buy NYSE Euronext in astock swapwith a valuation of $8 billion.NYSE Euronext shareholders would receive either $33.12 in cash, or $11.27 in cash and approximately a sixth of a share of ICE.Jeffrey Sprecher, the chairman and CEO of ICE, will retain those positions, but four members of the NYSE board of directors will be added to the ICE board.
On January 24, 2023, a glitch in NYSE caused panic due to unintentional trade orders opened and closed in more than 250 securities.
The NYSE's opening and closing bells mark the beginning and the end of each trading day. The opening bell is rung at 9:30 am ET to mark the start of the day's trading session. At 4 pm ET the closing bell is rung and trading for the day stops. There are bells located in each of the four main sections of the NYSE that all ring at the same time once a button is pressed.There are three buttons that control the bells, located on the control panel behind the podium which overlooks the trading floor. The main bell, which is rung at the beginning and end of the trading day, is controlled by a green button. The second button, colored orange, activates a single-stroke bell that is used to signal a moment of silence. A third, red button controls a backup bell which is used in case the main bell fails to ring.
The ringing of the bells usually accompanied withapplauseand is often done byVIPsandcelebrities(See pictures and the section "Notable bell-ringers").
The signal to start and stop trading was not always a bell; agavelwas the original signal, which is still utilized alongside the bell. However, the gavel is frequently damaged. During the late 1800s, the NYSE decided to switch the gavel for a gong to signal the day's beginning and end. After the NYSE changed to its present location at 18 Broad Street in 1903, the gong was switched to the bell format that is currently being used. The bell itself was produced byBevin BrothersinEast Hampton, Connecticut, which is known colloquially as "Bell Town" for its history of bell foundries and metal toy manufacturing.
A common sight today is the highly publicized events in which a celebrity or executive from a corporation stands behind the NYSE podium and pushes the button that signals the bells to ring. Due to the amount of coverage that the opening/closing bells receive, many companies coordinate new product launches and other marketing-related events to start on the same day as when the company's representatives ring the bell. It was only in 1995 that the NYSE began having special guests ring the bells on a regular basis; prior to that, ringing the bells was usually the responsibility of the exchange's floor managers.
Many of the people who ring the bell are business executives whose companies trade on the exchange, usually to announce new products, acquisitions, mergers or public offerings. However, there have also been many famous people from outside the world of business that have rung the bell, such as theMayor of New York CityRudy Giulianiand thePresident of South AfricaNelson Mandela. Two United Nations Secretaries General have also rung the bell. On April 27, 2006,Secretary-General Kofi Annanrang the opening bell to launch the United NationsPrinciples for Responsible Investment.On July 24, 2013,Secretary-General Ban Ki-moonrang the closing bell to celebrate the NYSE joining the United NationsSustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative.President-ElectDonald Trumprang the bell on December 12, 2024 after being nominated as theTIME Person of the Year.
Celebrities that have rung the bell include athletes such asJoe DiMaggioof theNew York Yankeesand Olympic swimming championMichael Phelps, entertainers such as rapperSnoop Dogg, members ofESPN'sCollege GameDaycrew, singer and actressLiza Minnelliand members of the rock bandKiss.
In addition there have been many bell-ringers selected for their public contributions, such as members of theNew York City Police DepartmentandNew York City Fire Departmentfollowing theSeptember 11 attacks, members of theUnited States Armed Forcesserving overseas, and participants in various charitable organizations.
Several fictional characters have rung the bell as well, includingMickey Mouse, thePink Panther,Mr. Potato Head, theAflacDuck, Gene and Jailbreak ofThe Emoji Movie,andDarth Vader.