Some history behind the NYSE

The New York Stock Exchange, sometimes known as the "Big Board", is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at US$16.613 trillion as of May 2013. Average daily trading value was approximately 153 billion in 2008.

The NYSE trading floor is located at 11 Wall Street and is composed of four rooms used for the facilitation of trading. A fifth trading room, located at 30 Broad Street, was closed in February 2007. The main building, located at 18 Broad Street, between the corners of Wall Street and Exchange Place, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978, as was the 11 Wall Street building.

The NYSE is operated by NYSE Euronext, which was formed by the NYSE's 2007 merger with the fully electronic stock exchange Euronext. In December 2012, it was announced that the company would be sold to Intercontinental Exchange, a futures exchange headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, The United States, for $8 billion, a figure that is significantly less than the $11 billion bid for the company tendered in 2011.
History

The origin of the NYSE can be traced to May 17, 1792, when the Buttonwood Agreement was signed by 24 stockbrokers outside of 68 Wall Street in New York under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street. On March 8, 1817, the organization drafted a constitution and renamed itself the "New York Stock & Exchange Board." Anthony Stockholm was elected the Exchange's first president.
The last central location of the Exchange was a room, rented in 1792 for $200 a month, located at 40 Wall Street. After that location was destroyed in the Great Fire of New York in 1835, the Exchange moved to a temporary headquarters. In 1863, the New York Stock & Exchange Board changed to its current name, the New York Stock Exchange. In 1865, the Exchange moved to 10–12 Broad Street.