Japan Style

When we think of the current New York Stock Exchange, images come to mind of the Big Board, ticker tape and incredible amounts of stress. But it didn’t always use to be that way. There was a time when a group of men met under a shady tree in the spring to found what would become one of the most powerful and well known exchanges in the world.

The story of the Buttonwood Agreement actually goes back even further than 1792. Two years earlier, then Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton (pre-duel) issued a then staggering amount of $80 million in war bonds to help pay for the rising costs of the Revolutionary War. It would be these bonds that would play a key role in the founding of the Buttonwood Agreement.

A major reason for the founding of the Buttonwood Agreement was that securities trading in New York City at that time was a bit disorganized. Auctioneers would deal in commodity trading, land speculation and foreign currency exchange, but the Buttonwood Agreement sought to organize and streamline the trading so that it could be done in one place.

Two years later, on May 17, 1792, a group of 24 prominent New York City business men met outside of 68 Wall Street in lower Manhattan and put together the Buttonwood Agreement. With a simple two-sentence contract, they formed the New York Stock & Exchange Board and the first securities to be traded were those very war bonds that Alexander Hamilton had issued two years prior. The first company to be listed on the new exchange was the bank of New York. The original home for the new stock & exchange board would be the Tontine Coffee House, which was owned by Hugh Smith, one of the 24 founding members. Other founding members included well known New York business men such as Charles McEvers Jr, John Bush, Alexander Zuntz and Ephraim Hart.

In 1817, the adopted name of the New York Stock & Exchange Board was formally adopted, as well as a comprehensive constitution and bylaws, and later in 1863, this name was shortened to the name we know today, the New York Stock Exchange.

It’s amazing to consider that the billions of dollars that trade hands every day on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange started as a group of business men looking to organize colonial American commodity trading under a tree. But it’s true, and their legacy is felt every single day and it will continue to be felt for as long as the NYSE stands.

The United States Securites and Exchange Commission was founded in 1934 in response to the great stock market crash of 1929. Congress created the SEC in the hopes that it would serve as an independent and non-partisan agency that would help regulate the dealing of securities in the USA. Thanks to the crash of 1929, Congress also enacted many new securities laws that the SEC was created to enforce.

The main job of the SEC is to enforce a series of laws, most of them enacted from 1933-1940 that help protect investors of securities and the economy as a whole. Congress has given the SEC the right to bring civil cases against companies that they feel have committed a series of crimes, such as insider trading, fraud, or companies that have given false information. The SEC also works hand-in-hand with local police, the FBI or the CIA in pursuing criminal charges when the proper laws have been broken.

One of the ways that the SEC gathers information about various companies so that it can see if any of them have broken the law is be requiring that publicly held companies submit reports four times a year and then an annual report, as well, showing their financial numbers. The companies also file reports with the SEC that outline how the business did that year and how it expects to do in the future.

These reports are absolutely vital to investors when trying to figure out which company to invest in. The capital markets are notorious for upheaval and these reports are essential for investors who are trying to figure out which companies are safe to invest in and which ones aren’t.

The SEC allows anyone to read these reports and they are available via an online system to read at any time. The SEX also uses this same system so that individual investors may file complaints against a company that they feel might be breaking the law. This allows every day citizens the chance to call attention to a possibly crooked company.

A recent pop culture reference to the SEC came from the now-defunct television show Arrested Development, when the pilot episode featured the SEC boarding a yacht to confiscate documents related to the Bluth family business.

The SEC is a vital government agency that helps companies walk the straight and narrow and helps individual investors make educated decisions about the right companies to invest in. If you’re thinking about investing in the capitals market, a visit to the SEC online system is an absolute must.

What if I show you a real system thatyou can use to put $500-$1000 per day into your account working from the comfort of your house.If you are interested Click Here!

What if I show you a real system thatyou can use to put $500-$1000 per day into your account working from the comfort of your house.If you are interested Click Here!

The 1920 Bombing of Wall Street.
When most people think of terrorist attacks in New York City, images of September 11^th instantly spring to mind. But that wasn’t the first major attack in New York’s history. The World Trade Centre was attacked earlier in 1993 with a bomb in the building’s basement. But there was yet another terrorist attack in New York, this one right on Wall Street that attempted to shut down the New York Stock Exchange for good.

On September, 16^th, 1920, a wagon full of explosives was detonated at “The Corner” of Wall and Broad streets. A man was seen fleeing the wagon moments before it exploded, but no one thought to stop him. A few seconds later, a large explosion ripped through the square, leaving behind it a scene of unfathomable destruction.

Once the smoke had cleared, 39 people had been killed. This ranked as the most deaths from a terrorist attack in New York history until the events of 9/11. Hundreds of people were injured not only by the initial explosion but by bits of iron shrapnel that had been placed inside the wagon so that the maximum possible amount of damage would be done.

A bell rang out in the New York Stock Exchange just after noon on the 16^th signalling a stoppage of trading for that day. It was the first time trading had ever been stopped because of violence. A decision had to be made by the governors of the NYSE about whether to open the next day. And much like during 9/11, those that ran the NYSE decided to go ahead with business the very next day.

The 1920 bombing could have had a major historical impact had a few different things happened. A young stockbroker named Joseph Kennedy was on Wall Street that day, and had he been any closer to the blast which knocked him to the ground, America’s political history would look very, very different.

The tragic postscript to the story is that no one was ever caught, arrested, charged or convicted of the bombing. Many people associated with the anarchy movement that was present at the time were suspected and many people were interviewed, but no one ever caught.

For many, the events of 9/11 were a stark reminder of the fact that terrorism is simply part of living. Most figured that the attacks in 1993 and then in 2001 were New York’s first brushes with terror, but a look at the history books shows that New York has stood strong through terror in the past and it will do the same in the future.

What if I show you a real system that you can use to put $500-$1000 per day into your account working from the comfort of your house.If you are interested Click Here!