New York Stock Exchange

Financial Dictionary -> Investing -> New York Stock Exchange

Started in 1792 and famously located on Wall Street, the NYSE or New York Stock Exchange in its full form is the largest stock exchange in the world and has a huge impact on every nation's economy. Since its 2007 merger with Euronext it has become 100% electronic capable, making investment fees and costs cheaper, and giving investors the speedy, efficient and real-time system they crave. It has an estimated market cap of over $25 trillion, and the capitalization of the New York Stock Exchange's partner companies is over $10 trillion.

The two main indexes of the New York Stock Exchange are the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the NYSE Composite, which tracks all the common stock listed on the exchange.

Like all stock exchanges, the New York Stock Exchange facilitates the trading of regular stocks, bonds, options/futures, commodities and other financial securities on an open market basis. Anyone is allowed to trade, although a broker is usually required to make the transaction. They will take a small fee. This can be done the traditional way on the trading floor, by phone or now commonly via the internet.

Due to its size, the New York Stock Exchange has been cited as having several major crashes throughout its existence. It had to close its doors temporarily during World War I; in October 24, 1929 (Black Thursday) it was part of the big panic and great depression, on October 19, 1987 (Black Monday) there was 22.6% loss causing a complete hold on trading, and in 2008 it was part of the world recession.

Although transactions can now be placed at any time due to the internet, actual trading is only open from 9:30am to 4pm, Monday to Friday, with several holidays pre-announced by the exchange.