New York Stock Exchange Essay

The New York Stock Exchange was founded on March 8th 1817 in New York City (NYSE.com). The exchange just recently celebrated it’s 198th birthday. The stock market has always had a very tumultuous relationship with it’s investors. Some make their fortunes by investing and some lose it all. For those unlucky enough to have been invested in the market fall of 1929 it was the latter.

The New York Stock Exchange has evolved to become an extremely different beast than it had originally been. The stock exchange was first being conducted out of rented rooms at 40 Wall Street. The stock exchange reached it’s first million shares a day for the first time on December 1th 1866. This paved the way for the New York Stock Exchange to grow and by 1918 the

Many people including bankers and the average townsperson began investing heavily in the stock market. Many stated that there were bargains to be had. With all the trading of stock and voluminous amounts of money being infused, murmurs of a collapse were rising by early March of 1929. A small-scale crash was initiated when investors started selling their shares, divulging the shaky foundation of the market in late March of 1929 (History.com). After an inundation of credit by National City Bank the market began to stabilize. By late spring, the U.S. financial system showed unfavorable signs of a large scale crash. Even with all of the worries, the market continues to climb. This lead to record high levels in Summer of 1929. On September 3rd 1929 the market reaches it’s peak. A newspaper prints “public demand for stock is insatiable”(History.com). 2 days later on September 5th, the market takes a momentous fall, which shortly after stabilizes but the crash had begun. Almost 2 months later on October 28th 1929 what is known as “Black Monday” the “bubble” bursts. A loss of over $5 billion dollars is reported. The next day which is known in history as “Black Tuesday” was when the true panic set in with