Wall Street is the New York street closely associated with the business world and the stock market.
Located in Manhattan’s Financial District, Wall Street became a center of American finance through nearby trading activity, banks, brokers, and government institutions. The name also became a metonym for New York’s financial sector and, more broadly, U.S. financial markets.
Its financial history reaches back to May 17, 1792, when 24 brokers signed the Buttonwood Agreement outside 68 Wall Street. That agreement organized securities trading in New York and eventually led to the New York Stock Exchange. The NYSE’s current building is primarily on Broad Street, but Wall Street remains the better-known symbol of the market.
The street’s name originally referred to a defensive wall built by the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam in the 17th century. A common mix-up is treating Wall Street as synonymous with the NYSE building itself: Wall Street is both a real street and a wider shorthand for the people, institutions, and markets concentrated in Lower Manhattan.