Stock market is an inquisitive place for many. It is because the place
has given birth to many millionaires and is also responsible for
turning millionaires to locals. Thus the bulls and bears have always
been charismatic. Now millions of people invest in the stock market to
make good money. The aura of the place is such that it is swarming with
people any hour of the day and any season of the year. But only few
know that how the stock market came into existence or what actually are
its origins.
A short encounter with the past
The oldest stock certificate was issued in favor of a Dutch company in
1606. The purpose of this company was to benefit from the spice trade
between India and the Far East. During the 18th and the 19th centuries
the trade of spices drifted to England when Napoleon reigned over the
place. With the development of United States of America as a colony to
British and Alexander Hamilton (the first US secretary of the Treasury)
flourished the American Stock Exchange. Hamilton played a crucial role
in encouraging the trading in the Wall Street and Broad Street in New
York. The New York Stock and Exchange Board now popularly known as the
New York Stock Exchange was organized by the traders of New York in
1817 when trade and commerce bloomed there.
A precise survey of the Western stock market
• The Wall Street- a place where the whole of 18th century trade and
commerce took place, Wall Street is a recognized place across the
globe. The street was termed as Wall Street since it ran alongside a
wall that was taken as the northern boundary of New Amsterdam in 17th
century.
The Wall Street is known for the J.P. Morgan’s million dollar merger
that created US Steel Corporation, the ruinous crisis that resulted in
Great Depression and the “Black Monday” of 1987.
• The NYSE or the New York Stock Exchange is perhaps the foremost and
so the oldest stock exchange in United States that is believed to be
born in 1792. The significant aspects related to NYSE include the
Buttonwood Agreement when 24 stockbrokers and traders of New York
signed this accord and established the New York Stock Exchange and
Securities Board which is now recognized as the NYSE; the considerable
swings that the NYSE saw during the 20th and 21st century; the hitting
of the 100 and later even 1000 mark by the Dow around 1971 and the mark
of 10,000 that the Dow scaled in 1999.
• NASDAQ is the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated
Questions. It is an apparent or virtual stock market where all trading
is done through the electronic media. NASDAQ, the global and the
largest electronic stock market today was first established in 1971 in
United States at the time when computers were not as developed as they
are today and it was very difficult to compute. The main exchange of
NASDAQ is in United Sates while its branches can be found in Canada and
Japan and it is also linked to markets of Hong Kong and Europe. NASDAQ
functions by purchasing and selling the over- the- counter or OTC
stocks.
• AMEX-was discovered in 1842. The putative father of the institution
is Edward Mc Cormick (the commissioner of SEC) who endowed it with its
current name. It started its journey as the New York Curb Exchange and
its name is factual. The AMEX in contrast to the NYSE operates with the
small and more dynamic companies some of which even make it to the NYSE
board.
