New York Stock Exchange in 1882

This page explores the New York Stock Exchange and the workings of the Stock Market.

Topics on the Page

What is Wall Street and How does it work?

History of Stock Market

Cross-Links

• The Stock Market Crash of 1929

• The Financial Crisis of 2008

• Financial Investments

Notable Events and People

What is Wall Street?

• Click here for a brief video explanation of the New York Stock Exchange

Follow the Dow, NASDAQ, S & P and World Markets with Google Finance

• Only 4 percent of all publicly traded stocks account for all the net wealth earned by investors since 1926

• Only 30 stocks account for 30 percent of net wealth generated by stocks in the long term

• Link to Do Stocks Outperform Treasury Bills? Hendrick Bessembinder, 2017

• Top 10 Lifetime Wealth Generating Companies
• Apple
• Exxon Mobile
• Microsoft
• General Electric
• IBM
• Altria Group
• Johnson & Johnson
• General Motors
• Chevron
• Walmart

History of the Stock Market

• In 1792, stocks were traded publicly in New York for the first time, with a group of 24 brokers signing the Buttonwood Agreement and trading three government bonds and two bank stocks. At the time, Philadelphia was the finance capital of the United States.

• The War of 1812 led to a growth of the stock exchange, as the government issued millions of treasury notes to finance the war.

• In the 1860s, the Stock Exchange received a building for the first time.

• Link to the Stock Market Crash of 1929

• Link to the Financial Crisis of 2008

This article discusses how the DOW Jones reported an all-time high in score in March 2021.

This article from BBC shows how the Covid-19 Pandemic affected World Economies. 

This article discusses the Wall Street "battle" in January of 2021, focusing on the GameStop Stock Spike and efforts to regulate the market. 

 Multimedia Resources

Click here for a link to an episode of Crash Course US History explaining how the stock market crashed.

This game is a simulation of the Stock Exchange.

How Facebook's $120 Billion Loss Ranks Among the Biggest One-Day Stock Disasters

• Wednesday, July 25, 2018 Facebook = $630 billion

• Thursday, July 26, 2018 Facebook = $510 billion
  

The Buttonwood Agreement was so named because of the tree under which it was signed. See image to the left.

The NYSE has been using the same bell to open and close the day's trading since 1903. To learn about the history of the bell, click here.

In 1967, Muriel Siebert became the first woman to win a seat on the NYSE.

Muriel Siebert

The NYSE played an important role in the Stock Market Crash of 1929.

In 1970, Joseph L. Searles III became the first African-American to trade on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Searles was a former NFL player who did not have much experience in finance, but wished to break the color barrier in Wall Street, so that one day African-Americans would be commonly represented among the economic elite..

Searles was not actually the first African-American member of the exchange - that distinction belongs to Clarence B. Jones, who became a member in 1967 but did not trade on the floor of the exchange.

  This article discusses how companies who are friendlier to all people, including the LGBTQ+ community, have better success in the Stock Market.