Trading Stock Income and the NYSE

With millions of dollars traded every day the New York Stock Exchange is the largest trading market the world over. Thousands of companies, along with millions of company shares traded on a regular basis. It's easy to understand why the New York Stock Exchange has such an effect on economies the world over. Open every day of the year, the New York Stock Exchange has been known to make or break a company.

In 1792, a handful of people began the NYSE by trading stocks at 68 Wall St, New York, New York. The Button Wood agreement was signed by 24 stockbrokers with the name chosen from a local Button Wood tree, the beginnings of the NYSE and its eventual worldwide renown had begun.

The button wood agreement was for 24 brokers to trade amongst themselves. A 0.25% commission was charged on all trades to support the trading house with only government bonds as well as bank stocks being the trading venue. Incidentally, the Bank of New York was the first to start trading shares on the NYSE. It didn't become formalized until 1817 when the original agreement turned into the New York Stock Exchange Board, led by Anthony Stockholm. By this time there were 30 stocks or different companies that were being traded upon in the NYSE, and by 1868, there were 533 board members. A rented building was used by this time at 40 Wall St, New York, New York.

Interestingly enough to know, the first ticker tape was used in 1867, with telephones installed in 1878, and the electronic display boards you used to see on TV or the Internet was initiated in 1966. Also, the board members had grown compared to 1868 to a whopping 1366 seats. There've only been two occasions when the New York Stock Exchange actually closed. The first world war eruption, and again in 2001 during the terrorists attack of the World Trade Centers, other than that, the NYSE has remained open every day the year.

In 2005, the NYSE acquired Archipelago, which allowed the New York Stock Exchange to become a for-profit business. Now instead of having the NYSE board and a president, you'll now need an annual license in order to deal shares of your company on the New York Stock Exchange. The NYSE is now run on United States Eastern time zones, and opens and closes with the ring of a bell just as of old. Every day of the year companies buy and sell, money is made and lost, and the world's trade as well as the United States economy depends a lot upon this trading company.

As of today there are over 3000 companies from 50 countries around the world that are traded on the New York Stock Exchange and this, funny enough, includes trading the shares of the NYSE itself.

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...while Mr.

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My money is on the former. I'd say QBE's long-term future looks good (though maybe not quite as good as its past). And, if I'm right, that's great news for today's shareholders. Here's my reasoning.

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And Goldman Sachs... and so on and so forth.

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