A Brief History of Trading: New York Stock Exchange Opening

The NYSE was founded in 1792 by 24 stockbrokers under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street. The “Buttonwood Agreement” was the NYSE founding document. Stock and bond trading on exchanges paved the way for the Federal Reserve System established in 1913 and the Fed’s domination in the 20^th century, which is still demonstrated today. In any event, one of the disadvantages of paper and note money for trading was that it lacked having the individual’s name on the currency—meaning that all a thief had to do was steal your currency to have full access to it. Banks began issuing credit cards around 1950. The individual’s name was printed on these portable plastic cards. Trading flourished because individuals did not have to carry large amounts of cash on them. Further advances in technology produced more sophisticated forms of trading such as ATM withdrawals in the 1960s, online internet banking in the 1990s, and mobile digital payment systems in the first decade of the 21^st century.