Let's go back in time and imagine ourselves standing near a buttonwood tree at 68 Wall Street on May 17, 1792. We watch as 24 stock brokers sign the Buttonwood Agreement under that tree and the New York Stock Exchange is born. The brokers call their group the New York Stock Exchange. Their first president is Anthony Stockholm.
Flash forward a few years to 1817, when the exchange rented a room at 40 Wall Street. When that building was destroyed by fire, the exchange moved into temporary headquarters and then moved to a permanent location at 10-12 Broad Street.
Now let's fast forward to the year 2000, when the NYSE introduced electronic trading. Five years later, it purchased Archipelago on April 21, 2005. This created the NYSE Group, which then became a public company. Finally, the acquisition of Euronext on April 4, 2007 created the first transatlantic stock exchange.
Over the years the exchange experienced a few historical events: In 1920, a bomb exploded outside the NYSE. Then came Black Thursday on October 24, 1929, which created the selling panic that started the Great Depression. Another plunge occurred on October 19, 1987 when the Dow fell 508 points. (Notice the market lows made in the month of October.) From September 11 to September 17, 2001, the Exchange was closed after the September 11 attacks.
In 2009, the markets fell to 12-year lows with the Dow down to 6,500. On Friday May 15, 2009 the Dow stood at 8,268.64
Where do you think the Dow will go from here?
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