The New York Stock Exchange was formally organized
On this day · 8 March 1817
In 1817 a loose circle of Wall Street brokers signed a constitution and gave themselves a name — the seed of the modern NYSE.
Wall Street traded in the open air for decades before the brokers decided to get organized. On March 8, 1817, a group that included four signers of the 1792 Buttonwood Agreement adopted a written constitution and named themselves the New York Stock & Exchange Board — the direct forerunner of today’s New York Stock Exchange.
The new rulebook was modeled on the Philadelphia exchange and ran to seventeen rules governing trading, member admission, and discipline. It fined disorderly brokers and banned “fictitious trades” — sham deals meant to fake activity and lure outside money.
Membership had its price: brokers had to show up for every auction session.
The board rented a room at 40 Wall Street, met twice a day, and traded a modest list of about 30 stocks and bonds. From that small, rule-bound club grew the largest stock exchange on Earth — though it wouldn’t adopt the name “New York Stock Exchange” until 1863.
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