History of the stock market

The history of stock market dates back to the 11 th century Egypt according to some historians, whereas, some talk about European markets in the 12th - 14 th as its base. A flourishment of a mixed bag of models of investment trading came in ranging from debt brokers in France to the government security traders of Italy . Joint stock companies were first started by the Dutch which gave vent to the shareholders to invest for the share in profit. It reached its vertex of excellence with the first offering of shares on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in 1602 and this history of stock market is really of interest.

American Stock Markets

Alexander Hamilton who, was the first US Secretary of the Treasury, took care of the uphill task to promote security trading in New York in the government's formative years. He did a great job for the development of American stock market and corner of Wall Street & Broad Street was the center of trading at that time. New York Stock Exchange started its journey with 24 men intending to sell shares in companies in 1792. In 1817, it shifted to a building at 40 Wall Street when New York Stock & Exchange Board got formed.

However, there occurred a change when the investors during the time Industrial Revolution of the 1900s desired to trade shares of companies outside of the realm of N.Y.S.E. There came the term "curb trading." In 1842, was formed New York Curb Exchange which later became American Stock Exchange. However, the demand of the brokers compelled the situation to bring forth a system of hand signals.

Stock Market Crashes

"The Crash of '29”, which came in the year 1929 in the history of stock market, began with a crash on Black Thursday (October 24 th )and reached the nightmarish crash on Black Tuesday (October 29 th ). The panic of this disaster loomed large for 1 month. Within a span of a week, the market lost $30 billion in value. Apart from this, being the largest 1 day percentage decline in stock market what comes to our mind is Black Monday Crash of October 1987. On September 17 th , 2001 another such decline occurred.

Stock Markets in the Computer Age

NASDAQ, a simple computer bulletin board system, came out of nowhere including trade, volume reporting and automated trading systems and being the world's first electronic stock market in the history of stock market it got high esteem. Small Order Execution System came into being following the problem of many brokers refusing to answer their phones after the 1987 Black Monday crash. Linking with the London Stock Exchange, NASDAQ astonishingly created the first intercontinental securities market in 1992. It became NASDAQ-Amex Market Group when it got amalgamated with American Stock Exchange in 1998. Be it share volume or dollar value, by the 21 st century, it became the largest electronic stock market in the US .

Trading is undergoing evolutions as the NYSE and NASDAQ began to allow after-hours trading in 1999. Day trading is also getting development. Added to this, the computers also make it possible to accomplish in international scenario and online trading software and the availability of market research online serve as an aid to the investors to take increasing control of their portfolios and stock activities.