The NYSE, with the distinction of being the oldest stock exchange in the United States, is housed in a 36,000-square-foot facility in New York City’s financial district.
Affected by world events, the exchange has seen its share of heart-stopping ups and downs, some of the biggest occurring in just the last thirty years:
- On October 19, 1987, the Dow plummeted 22.61%, the largest one-day percentage drop in history.
- On October 27, 1997, the Dow took a 554-point nosedive, triggering for the first time the NYSE “circuit breaker” rule, created to halt all trading activity when it looks like the market might be headed for a crash.
- On March 16, 2000, the NYSE saw the Dow climb 499 points in a single day, the largest one-day gain in history.
- After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the NYSE closed for four days, followed by a Dow drop of 685 points, the largest one-day decline in points.
In 2007, the NYSE combined with the European stock exchange Euronext, to form NYSE Euronext, a global milestone for the trading community. This market broke a new record, trading more than 5 billion shares in a single day, on August 15, 2007, when trading volume hit an unprecedented 5,799,792,281 shares.
Not content to rest on its laurels, NYSE Euronext acquired the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) in 2008, and fully integrated trading began in early 2009. That combined exchange offered expanded trading capabilities, including stock options, exchange-traded funds, and other specialized securities.
Then, in 2013, everything changed. After more than 200 years of ruling the financial markets, the NYSE was bought by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). Though it still operates as it did before the takeover, the NYSE is now just a holding in another company’s portfolio.