NYSE American, formerly known as the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), and more recently as NYSE MKT, is an American stock exchange situated in New York City. AMEX was previously a mutual organization, owned by its members. Until 1953, it was known as the New York Curb Exchange.
NYSE American
Curb brokers in Wall Street, New York City, 1920, a year before the trading was moved indoors. That year, journalist Edwin C. Hill described the curb trading on lower Broad Street as "a roaring, swirling whirlpool... like nothing else under the astonishing sky that is its only roof."
American Stock Exchange Building, constructed in 1921
The text reads: "On June 27, 1921, the curbstone brokers moved from their outdoor Market on Broad Street to establish on this site the indoor securities market that became the American Stock Exchange."
The phrase curbstone broker, curb-stone broker or curb broker refers to a broker who conducts trading on the literal curbs of a financial district. Such brokers were prevalent in the 1800s and early 1900s, and the most famous curb market existed on Broad Street in the financial district of Manhattan. Curbstone brokers often traded stocks that were speculative in nature, as well as stocks in small industrial companies such as iron, textiles and chemicals. Efforts to organize and standardize the market started early in the 20th century under notable curb-stone brokers such as Emanuel S. Mendels.
Curb brokers in Wall Street in 1920, a year before much of the trading was moved into a dedicated exchange building. That year, journalist Edwin C. Hill described the curb trading on lower Broad Street as "a roaring, swirling whirlpool... like nothing else under the astonishing sky that is its only roof."
Stock trading on the New York Curb Association market on Broad Street circa 1916, with brokers and clients signalling from street to offices. Many members used flamboyant hand signals to conduct trades.
Curb market at Broad Street 1902. Wrote a local resident in 1907, each morning at 10 o'clock the "multitude" of "brokers, brokers' clerks, lemonade and provision vendors, messenger boys, 'lambs' awaiting slaughter, and numerous other attaches and camp followers of the noisy and disorderly throng breaks forth with a volley of discordant screams which rend the air for several blocks, and then bedlam reigns until the gong again sounds at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, to the confusion and discomfort of the whole surrounding neighborhood."
Broad Street and Curb Brokers, circa 1909.
