Second-oldest stock exchange in the United States.
The American Stock Exchange (AMEX) originally began as an outdoor trading center for government securities and for other companies in the mid-1850s. Known initially as “the Curb” because all transaction occurred outside, by 1908 it organized formally under the name of the New York Curb Agency after federal legislation tightened control over trading activities. In 1921, the exchange moved indoors to its present location at 86 Trinity Place in New York City. The New York Curb Agency traded commodities, monetary instruments, and the stocks of smaller companies not traded on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1953 the name changed again, this time to the American Stock Exchange. By the 1960s, the exchange had introduced state-of-the-art computer technology that by the 1970s included display screens with data about the equities market. Always aware of the need to remain on the cutting edge, the American Stock Exchange entered into an agreement in 2000 that allows investors to trade in AMEX stocks through the Singapore Exchange. The exchange continues to move toward the decimalization of price quotes from eighths to tenths of a point, a system commonly used in the United States. The major index of the American Stock Exchange is the American Composite. The exchange currently lists more than 800 companies.
