Financial Dictionary
Atlantic Financial
Atlantic Financial
Investment
Word
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is the largest, most prestigious stock
exchange. It is an auction market for
securities the largest American, and in some cases
international, companies.
NYSE, New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is considered the world’s largest securities
exchange for stocks. As of the release of the NYSE’s 2004 financials, some 2,768
companies with more than $20 trillion in total global market capitalization
listed their shares on the NYSE.
More than 1,300 traders handle an average of 1.6 billion shares a day on the New
York Stock Exchange. The NYSE offers an orderly, liquid and efficient
marketplace for investors to buy and sell common stock and other trading
instruments. It is responsible for evaluating applicants, listing securities,
overseeing member activities, setting policy, and supervising the transfer of
member seats.
Not every company can be listed on the NYSE, as the exchange maintains and
imposes stringent quantitative and financial standards for listed companies. If
a company is unable to comply with these standards, it will not be listed on the
exchange. On the other hand, if a listed company falls below NYSE standards, it
can become delisted from the exchange.
The NYSE Composite Index includes all common stocks traded on the New York Stock
Exchange, and is the only major measure that reflects the whole NYSE market. A
stock index is a specific group of stocks: whether its value is up or down
reflects the combined price movements of all the stocks in the index. The NYSE
Composite Index consists of separate indexes for four industry groups:
industrial, transportation, utility, and finance.
Unlike some of the newer exchanges, the NYSE still uses a large trading floor in
order to conduct its transactions. On the New York Stock Exchange trading floor,
brokers, or representatives of buyers and sellers, meet and shout out prices at
one another in order to strike a price. To facilitate the exchange of stocks,
the NYSE “specialists” are assigned to manage buy and sell transactions for
specific stocks. The fact that trading on the New York Stock Exchange is
physically localized results in an efficient system for ensuring the best
available bid-and-offer quotes.
In recent years, with the growing popularity of electronic exchanges, the New
York Stock Exchange has made significant strides in offering electronic trading
services available to investors. The average daily volume of orders executed
through the NYSE’s current electronic trading platform, NYSE Direct+, totals
more than 127.6 million shares, or almost 10 percent of total NYSE volume. When
it was introduced in 2001, the average daily volume executed through NYSE
Direct+ was 16.1 million shares.
If you’re interested in investing in stocks listed on the NYSE, Atlantic
Financial can help you find a stock or mutual fund investing in NYSE stocks that
meets your criteria. We have licensed and knowledgeable
representatives that can advise you. For more
information or to have us answer any questions, please call (800) 559-2900,
e-mail us (please be sure to include your name and phone number in your email)
or complete our online form.
Back to the top of the page for
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)
