The New York Stock Exchange, or NYSE as it is commonly abbreviated, was founded on May 17th, 1792 by a document that became known as the Buttonwood agreement. Twenty-four influential New York brokers signed the "agreement" under the Buttonwood tree on Wall Street that is its namesake. A full constitution was drafted by 1817, as the New York Stock and Exchange Board, and the name was changed to its current form in 1863. The NYSE was the second stock exchange in the British colonies and traded in all products, especially stocks, from the very beginning. This was an important advantage over the London brokers who were hamstrung by the English laws forbidding stock trading [5].