What is The NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) ?

Welcome to the Investors Trading Academy talking glossary of financial terms and events.
Our word of the day is the “NYSE”
The New York Stock Exchange, often referred to as NYSE and "The Big Board," is the largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world. Home to more than 2,800 companies with a combined value of more than $15 trillion, the NYSE relies on face-to-face trades, rather than electronic trades.
The NYSE began in 1792, when 24 stockbrokers gathered under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street to sign an agreement that established the rules for buying and selling bonds and shares of companies. This agreement, or the Buttonwood Agreement, was named after the tree.
The NYSE is the oldest and largest stock exchange in the U.S., located on Wall Street in New York City. The NYSE is responsible for setting policy, supervising member activities, listing securities, overseeing the transfer of member seats, and evaluating applicants. Unlike some of the newer exchanges, the NYSE still uses a large trading floor in order to conduct its transactions. It is here that the representatives of buyers and sellers, professionals known as brokers, meet and shout out prices at one another in order to strike a deal. This is called the open outcry system and it usually produces fair market pricing. In order to facilitate the exchange of stocks, the NYSE employs individuals called specialists who are assigned to manage the buying and selling of specific stocks and to buy those stocks when no one else will.

By Barry Norman, Investors Trading Academy