Every trading day, more than 1 billion stocks are traded on our country's stock exchanges. A stock gives the owner a stake in a company, and about 40% of American households own some assortment of stocks. Stock exchanges have only recently been regulated. The concept of investing dates back to ancient Greece. Mediterranean traders developed credit contracts in which the seller agreed to assume the financial risk for the cargo the ship was carrying, if it did not arrive on time or meet expectations. They were more or less options contracts. The first stock exchange took place in the Netherlands, and it was the first time that people bought an equity stake in a company, that is, a share of the company's shares. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayIn 1653, the Pilgrims built a wall to keep Indians from entering the area that is now called Wall Street. The wall was supposed to protect against Indian attacks and attacks from other European colonies. In 1753 the wall disappeared, but the road along it was a fully developed trade route and remained of vital importance. There was open-air trading until 1792, when the history of the New York Stock Exchange truly began. A group of 24 brokers signed the Buttonwood Agreement, aiming to prevent government regulation of their exchanges and prevent new entrants. The New York Stock Exchange was established and brokers met twice daily for formal auctions; the public was not invited and information was not easily accessible to them. Only 30 companies were traded, and only absolute risk takers and those seeking control of the company would invest. Wall Street has been called an arena of bears and bulls. Bears are traders who expect prices to fall, while bulls expect prices to rise. Stock exchanges have long been entirely manual, with stock certificates kept in basement safes and employees processing them by hand. The Information Age dawned when Samuel Morse created the telegraph, eliminating the need for regional markets in other cities. Brokers embraced this new technology and designated the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as the nation's trading capital, a central market. In 1867, the stock ticker was invented and provided up-to-date price information to brokers. It also gave the public near real-time information. The Wall Street Journal was established in 1889 and set a new standard in financial journalism. The Wall Street Journal published the Dow Jones Industrial Average and an index of 12 companies that serve as a stock market barometer. Investors use the Dow average to gauge how a stock's performance has changed relative to the overall average. This allowed investors to focus on long-term trends rather than getting distracted by short-term statics. The American Stock Exchange was created in the 1920s for the foreign trade of corporations. Next came JP Morgan, once the most powerful man in America and nicknamed the “king of corporate mergers.” He made US Steel shares so valuable that they sent the Dow up 500%. President Roosevelt used antitrust regulations to try to break up the monopoly empire built by Morgan. A bull market led to the biggest stock market crash ever. The brokers had pushed to 1932,.