Investing Basics

Central to investing and activity are NYSE Euronext exchanges, where billions of dollars worth of stock change hands each day. Only the highest quality companies can choose to list their securities on our exchanges.  And once they do, NYSE Euronext plays a unique role in providing deep and liquid markets for the trading of those securities, benefiting all investors, large and small.

Over 200 Years of Financial Excellence
The NYSE has come a long way since 1792, when 24 brokers and merchants signed the historic “Buttonwood Agreement” to trade a handful of securities on New York’s Wall Street. In the more than two centuries that have followed, the New York Stock Exchange has continued to adapt and evolve into the world’s largest global equities marketplace. The NYSE has remained unwavering in its commitment to customers and to building a truly global marketplace with great breadth of product and geographic reach. Its mission is to add value to the capital-raising and asset-management process by providing the highest-quality and most cost-effective marketplace for the trading of financial instruments, to promote confidence in and understanding of that process, and to serve as a forum for discussion of relevant national and international policy issues.