The New York Stock Exchange was founded in 1792 under the Buttonwood Agreement.
The agreement was signed by 24 brokers on May 17, 1792, in New York. It established rules for trading securities among the signatories and is widely treated as the institutional beginning of the exchange that later became the NYSE.
The exchange grew as New York became a major center of commerce, banking, and corporate finance. Its trading floor later became the scene of major episodes including the Panic of 1907, the 1929 Wall Street Crash, and the 1987 global market crash.
The Buttonwood Agreement did not create the modern exchange in its final form overnight. The organization changed names and locations as its operations expanded. The phrase “Buttonwood” refers to the buttonwood tree associated with the meeting place, traditionally identified as a location on Wall Street. The NYSE remains one of the world’s largest stock exchanges by listed-company market capitalization.