The New York Stock Exchange

The origin of this mega stock exchange could be traced back to more than 200 years, to the signing of the Buttonwood Agreement by 24 New York City stockbrokers and merchants in 1792. The NYSE got registered as a national securities exchange with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on October 1, 1934.

The largest equities marketplace in the world, the portfolio of the New York Stock Exchange consists of 3,667 stocks and with a capital traded worth more than $17 trillion in global market capitalization. These stocks are traded on a daily basis along with exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

The NYSE is the designated examining authority for the major securities firms in the U.S., which includes more than 250 member firms that deal with the public and account for more than 85 percent of the public customer accounts handled by broker-dealers. These firms service 93 million customer accounts, operate from more than 21,000 branch offices around the world and employ approximately 157,000 registered personnel.

In the futures market, the New York Stock Exchange Composite Index, a capitalization-weighted index of all common stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange plays a vital role. This capitalization-weighted index measures the changes in aggregate market value of all the NYSE common stocks and is frequently adjusted to eliminate the influence of corporate actions to ensure that it reflects only movements resulting from actual stock price changes.

NYSE Composite Index futures and options have served the diverse goals and strategies of risk managers and speculative investors. The index that currently encompasses more than 2,600 common stocks allows investors to take a position on the overall direction of the entire equities market without regard to style or sector.

For instance, a trader or a long hedger expecting rising stock prices could buy a futures contract on the NYSE Composite Index. If the market price does turn up, the buyer will gain from the daily increase in the price of the NYSE Composite Index futures contract.