History Of The Stock Exchange

On May 17, 1792, a group of merchants and auctioneers decided to meet daily at regular hours to buy and sell securities under an old buttonwood tree on Wall Street only a few blocks from the present site of the Stock Exchange. These men were the original members of the New York Stock Exchange. They handled the public's buy and sell orders in the new government stock, as well as in shares of insurance companies, Alexander Hamilton's First United States Bank, the Bank of North America in Philadelphia, and the Bank of New York.

In 1793 the Tontine Coffee House was completed at the northwest corner of Wall and William Streets and the brokers moved indoors. Soon after the turn of the century, it was evident that the Tontine Coffee House was too small to accommodate the volume of trading in securities and the stockbrokers moved to a meeting room at what is now 40 Wall Street. Greater activity brought the need for a more formal organization than that created by the simple 1792 agreement. On March 8, 1817, the first formal constitution of the New York Stock and Exchange Board, as it was then known, was adopted.

From 1817 to 1827 the Board met in various offices. After that, it moved a dozen times or so before settling at 18 Broad Street, which contains most of today's trading floor. The office building at 11 Wall Street was added in 1922. Other historic dates are: 1863, when the name "New York Stock Exchange" was adopted; when the first stock tickers were installed: when memberships were made saleable; 1871, when the call market gave way to a continuous market; 1879, when the first telephones were installed in the Exchange; 1886, the first time that a day's volume topped 1,000,000 shares; 1910, when the Exchange discontinued unlisted trading (previously unlisted stock could be traded, but the unlisted company had no responsibility to comply with Exchange standards); 1915, when the basis of quoting and trading in stocks changed from per cent of par value to dollars; 1922, when the questionnaire system for regular examination of the financial condition of member firms was inaugurated; 1933, when independent audits of financial statements were required of listed companies; and 1938, when a sweeping reorganization of the Exchange called for a paid president for the first time.