Also known as the “Grand Board”, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was created by the merger of the NYSE and Archipelago Holdings, which is entirely electronic, and became known as the New York Stock Exchange Group.
The NYSE is made up of 5 rooms used for trading and is located at 18 Broad Street, New York. The NYSE can trace its roots back to 1792, however it did not become known as the New York Stock Exchange until 1817, when the organization drafted a constitution.
It is the largest stock exchange in the world by the number of dollars that flow through it each day and has the second largest number of company listings, second only to NASDAQ. The global capitalization of the exchange is $2.1 trillion, of which $1.7 trillion are companies that are not based in the US.
The NYSE works in a similar way to an auction. Each listed company trades in one location. A specialist broker employed by each of the listed companies has the duty to act as auctioneer at the company’s stall.
Buyers and sellers of a certain stock gather around a particular post and an auction is held. This form of trading helps produce a stock price that is efficient and fair to both buyers and sellers. Human interaction and expert judgment help differentiate the New York Stock Exchange from other fully electronic stock exchanges.
In recent times, stock orders are increasingly sent to the trading floor electronically. Work is currently under way to develop a hybrid marketplace that brings together the elements of human interaction and electronic marketplaces.
The New York Stock Exchange has been made famous by a series of big-budget Hollywood movies. His story has also been very interesting. In 1920 a bomb was planted on Wall Street just outside the NYSE building. When it exploded it killed 33 people, injured more than 400 and caused considerable damage to surrounding buildings. The terrorists who planted the bomb were never caught.
There have been a number of famous Wall Street crashes, the most famous of which is known as Black Thursday, which occurred on October 24, 1929. The ensuing panic selling is often blamed on the Great Depression.
The current chair of the NYSE is Catherine Kinney and the CEO is John Reid, while Marsh Carter is the chairman.