The character Crazy Eyes in the film "Mr. Deeds" comments that "I watch the stock market channel all the time." The character distrusts the host of the channel and suspects that others are falling for false information, but Crazy Eyes is not as gullible. Watching programming may not help your stock picks, but knowing a little about the history of the stock market might improve your odds for investments. The stock market has offered a place for legal speculation since 1792 and it has a strong lure for many investors who may or may not know a few interesting facts about its history.
Origins
The Buttonwood Agreement of 1792 established the foundation for the modern day stock market in the United States. The earliest firms created government bonds and bank stocks the same year. The New York Stock Exchange formally organized in 1817 with just 24 brokerage firms with two open trading sessions that included reading the stock offerings on a public floor of a local Wall Street coffee house. The Dow Jones Industrial Average started business in 1896. The NASDAQ, a stock exchange based on electronic transfers, opened for trading in 1971 and this exchanged combined with the American Stock Exchange in 1998. The Philadelphia Exchange merged with the NASDAQ in 2007.
Great Depression Regulation
After the problems of margin buying and lending that contributed to the Great Depression in the United States during the 1920s and 1920s, the federal government passed the Securities Act in 1933 to regulate practices that contributed to fraud and poor economic planning. The act set up a federal disclosures and registered new stock issues. The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 added controls over fraudulent practices and disclosure and established the Securities and Exchange Commission to oversee the new regulations.
Index and Mutual Fund Trading
Stocks are not the only item traded on the stock exchange. The market also trades mutual and index funds. Massachusetts Investors Trust presented the first offerings of mutual funds in 1924, and the Wellington Fund combined stocks and bond offerings in 1928. Wells Fargo Bank established the first index fund in 1971 that allowed creation of stock market offerings by The Vanguard Group soon after the index creation.
Market Closings
Stock market closings correspond to world events. The longest closing of the New York Stock Exchanged happened July 31, 1914 during World War I when the war sent stock prices plunging. The market remained closed for a time and operated on limited hours for over four months. The market closed again in March 1933 in a "Bank Holiday" to stabilize trading during the Great Depression. President John F. Kennedy's death November 22, 1963 closed the market for the day. Trading stopped for four days after the bombing of the New York World Trade Center September 11, 2001.
The Best and the Worst Decades "The Wall Street Journal" claims investors during the 1950s saw the best returns on money invested in the stock market. The decade of 2000 marked the worst period of investment, even when the decade of the Great Depression is included. Financial reporter Tom Lauricella notes that, "Investors would have been better off investing in pretty much anything else, from bonds to bold or even just stuffing money under a mattress."
History as a Modern Investment Indicators
1. Poor Markets Include Prime Times for Investments.
The Great Depression of the 1930s included prime times for investors. The period from July 1932 through July 1933 recorded the Dow Jones Industrial Average's best year, marking a gain from 41.22 in July and increasing to 105.04 almost to the day a year later.
2. Low Risk Entrance Points Occur Regardless of Market Conditions.
The Bear Market of 1929 through 1932 provided investors a chance to enter the market with low amounts of capital. Modern investors have had similar investment opportunities, including such options as purchasing General Motors stock at bargain basement prices in 2008.
References:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System: Stock Market, Selected Statistics, Aug. 2010.
Domhoff, William. Who Rules America? Wealth, ncome, and Power, Dec. 2010.
"Investors Hope '10s Beat the '00s." Wall Street Journal. Tom Lauricella, Dec. 20, 2009.
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