The New York Stock Exchange traces its origin to the Buttonwood Agreement, signed in 1792.
The agreement was signed by 24 stockbrokers under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street in New York City. It established rules for trading among the signatories and is commonly treated as the founding event of what became the NYSE.
The brokers’ arrangement helped create a more organized market for securities. In 1817, the group adopted a constitution and took the name New York Stock & Exchange Board. The organization later became known as the New York Stock Exchange.
The Buttonwood Agreement is sometimes confused with the exchange’s later formal milestones. The NYSE’s building at 18 Broad Street opened in 1903, and electronic trading transformed market operations much later. The 1792 date refers specifically to the private agreement that created the original broker network, not to the opening of the present building.