New York Stock Exchange. History

The New York Stock Exchange, commonly referred to as the NYSE, is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street, Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at US$14.242 trillion as of Dec 2011. Average daily trading value was approximately US$153 billion in 2008. The NYSE trading floor is located at 11 Wall Street and is composed of four rooms used for the facilitation of trading.

The origin of the NYSE can be traced to May 17, 1792, when the Buttonwood Agreement was signed by 24 stockbrokers outside of 68 Wall Street in New York under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street. On March 8, 1817, the organization drafted a constitution and renamed itself the "New York Stock & Exchange Board." Anthony Stockholm was elected the Exchange's first president.

The volume of stocks traded increased sixfold in the years between 1896 and 1901, and a larger space was required to conduct business in the expanding marketplace. The new building, located at 18 Broad Street, cost $4 million and opened on April 22, 1903. The trading floor, at 33 × 42.5 m was one of the largest volumes of space in the city at the time, and had a skylight set into a 22 m high ceiling. The main façade of the building features six tall columns with Corinthian capitals.

In 1922, a building for offices, was added at 11 Wall Street, as well as a new trading floor called the Garage. Additional trading floor space was added in 1969 with the latest technology for information display and communication. Yet another trading floor was opened at 30 Broad Street called the Bond Room in 2000. A greater proportion of trading came to be executed electronically, and due to the resulting reduction in demand for trading floor space, the NYSE decided to close the 30 Broad Street trading room in early 2006. The adoption of electronic trading continued to reduce the number of traders and employees on the floor.

It began trading under the name NYSE Group on March 8, 2006. A little over one year later, on April 4, 2007, the NYSE Group completed its merger with Euronext, the European combined stock market, thus forming the NYSE Euronext, the first transatlantic stock exchange. Presently, Marsh Carter is Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange and the CEO is Duncan Niederauer.

Ex.1. Choose the correct word in each of the following sentences.

1.Faulty goods which are sent back to the supplier by the customer are known as ….

a) returns b) provisions c) recovers d) discounts

2. A … system should make sure that debtors do not owe too much money.

a) quality b) credit control c) credit note d) credit transfer

3. At the end of an accounting period, details of tax collected and tax paid are given to the authorities on an official form called a ….

a) statement b) declaration c) return d) confirmation

4. In many countries a tax is added to the price of goods and services, but some goods may be … and no tax is due.

a) exempt b) exceptional c) excused d) uncovered

5. The estimated expense of not being paid by debtors is known as a(an) ….

a) allowance b) devaluation c) proviso d) provision

6. A company sells goods on credit, but if customers never pay for these goods the money owing is known as ….

a) bad debts b) debits c) bad payment d) bankrupts

7. A … is not recorded in double entry.

a) cash discount b) refund c) trade discount d) cash sale