This is not just a bunch of brokers outside on a nice day. From the early 1800s through 1921, the New York Curb Market traded outside every day, no matter what the weather. Stock trading began in New York in 1792 to handle Revolutionary War debt. The original exchange met under a buttonwood tree on the corner of Wall and William Streets, where local traders signed the Buttonwood Agreement establishing rules and procedures for trading.

Some of those traders soon moved inside and eventually formed the New York Stock Exchange. Others kept trading outside and came to be known as curbstone brokers. They gathered first at the corner of Wall and Hanover Streets, then at William and Beaver Streets, and finally at Broad Street and Exchange Place—which is the scene here.

This was an official stock exchange, although it tended to be a bit wilder than its indoor cousin. The New York Stock Exchange required that a company have at least 100 shares to be traded, and many small, newly created companies did not. So independent brokers traded their stocks outside the registered exchange—literally outside. Curbstone brokers traded in highly speculative stocks in industries such as canals, railroads, and oil. The action in this outdoor stock market helped America’s new industries grow.

One of the brokers, Emanuel S. Mendels, was the driving force behind the first efforts to organize and standardize the curb market. The New York Curb Market Agency was established in 1908 to codify trading practices. It was organized as a mutual society, meaning the members owned the exchange collectively. In 1911, the curbstone brokers came to be known as the New York Curb Market. They finally moved indoors in 1921 to a building on Greenwich Street. In 1929, the New York Curb Market changed its name to the New York Curb Exchange, and in 1953 it was renamed the American Stock Exchange (AMEX).

AMEX continued to be the more innovative, speculative exchange. It pioneered options trading, and later derivatives trading. In 2008, the New York Stock Exchange’s parent company, Euronext, bought AMEX.