People have been keeping up with the stock market for a long time. How long?
Well, there have been stock markets in the world since the 1100s. Our own New York Stock Exchange, frequently referred to as the NYSE, has been around since 1792. The exchange began when 24 brokers signed an agreement under a buttonwood tree. Once it was only a single room on Wall Street, but now it’s the biggest stock exchange in the world.

The stock market allows traders to meet on the floor of the exchange to buy and sell shares of publicly traded companies. You have to have a “seat” on the exchange in order to buy or sell there. Most people have seen the floor of the exchange on the TV news. You don’t see anyone sitting there nowadays, but traders used to sit in chairs when trading stocks. Seats on the exchange used to be owned but are now leased one year at a time.

The NYSE itself became a stock that can be traded on its own floor in 2007 when it merged with another exchange. It is now named NYSE Euronext. The building at 11 Wall Street in Manhattan is a National Historic Landmark.