Exchange Characteristics

What is the New York Stock Exchange?

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) lists over 2,500

companies. It is where the stocks that are measured by the Dow Jones Averages are

traded.

•Members of the New York Stock Exchange are the brokers who actively trade stocks on the floor.

•When your stockbroker executes your order to sell, it is not completed until one of the brokers on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange finds another broker to buy it. That is why it might sell for a slightly different price than it was when you placed the sell order.

What Is NASDAQ?

NASDAQ originally was the acronym for the

National Association of Securities Dealer

Automated Quotation system.

• NASDAQ was founded in 1971

• It provided quotes for Over-the-Counter (OTC) stocks not listed on other markets. • For that reason, it became associated in

people's minds with technology stocks.

• NASDAQ is the largest electronic equities exchange in the U.S.

What is the American Stock Exchange?

• The third-largest stock exchange by trading volume in the United States.

• The AMEX is located in New York City and handles about 10% of all securities traded in the U.S.

• Has a larger representation of stocks and bonds issued by smaller companies than the NYSE.

• The AMEX started as an alternative to the NYSE.

• It originated when brokers began meeting on the curb outside the NYSE in order to trade stocks that failed to meet the Big Board’s stringent listing requirements, but the AMEX now has its own trading floor.

•In 1998 the parent company of the NASDAQ purchased the AMEX and combined their markets, although the two continued to operate separately.

•In 2008, the exchange was purchased by NYSE Euronext.