Experiential Exercise

The first beginnings of exchange that we ever heard of was in Belgium in 1531. Paris later followed in the 1600's with merchant's doing their business. A big bang began in London in 1725. It finally was granted the name the stock exchange later in 1773. This is when we first had a taste of what brokers could do with the trading of bonds. It was not until 1792 that the United States took action. The New York stock exchange was created to trade stocks and bonds in a universal place. It was born on Wall St. the place where it remains to this day. Massive amounts of money were being made each day, and it seemed to be a fool proof way to become successful in a growing nation. 1915, 1933, and 1954 proved to be the largest years for the New York stock exchange producing returns exceeding over 50%! But as soon as most people were feeling unbeatable and put all of their faith into the market, disaster struck. The world's worst crash came between 1930-1932. It lasted 813 days, and the total loss came out to be 86%. Today, many people are struggling in the stock market. Many people are getting out, while others are sticking through tough times hoping for the best. The thing is, it is a great place to make money, but it is a large gamble in todays society. I began my research in the library with a hard copy book. I found a book titled, It Was a Very Good Year, and it talked about many of the good years in the U.S. stock market. I started with a book, because I figured it would help me grasp the topic seeing it directly in front of me. I also used the world wide web databases to help me learn about the beginnings of how the stock market originated. I used academic search premeir and JSTOR to find articles dealing with the history of the market. I used Boolean Operators to find information on "Stock Market" AND "history." I found around 25 sources, so I did not revise my seacrh. I found two good srticles that helped me with my research. I found information on how different cities in different countries across the world opened their markets and how we took ideas to make ours even better.
Two Research Questions: 1. How did the stock market develop into what it is today with all of the markets within it?
2. Is there a correlation between our market and the foriegn markets? When we are up, are they?
I would check money magazine and maybe even watch the news or CNN to find out more information on latest stock market news.

Book Library Catalog
Title: It Was a Very Good Year, Extraordinary Moments in the Stock Market.
Author: Fridson, Martin S.
Copyright: 1998
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Academic Search Premier
Title: Lessons from History Back to Basics.
Author: Farrell, Christopher
Published in Business Week 12/29/08

Newspaper database
Title: For 40 Years, Small Caps Still Safest Bet in Stocks
Author: Jeff Cox
Published: 17 March 2009 CNBC Inc.


World Wide Web
Title: Stock Market History (Ads by Google)
No Author
No Publisher
Copyright © 2005 - 2008 Money-Zine.com
Date Accessed 18 March 2009
<http://www.money-zine.com/Investing/Stocks/Stock-Market-History/>

Disciplinary data base
Title: Overnight and Daytime Stock-Return Dynamics on the London Stock Exchange: The Impacts of "Big Bang" and the 1987 Stock-Market Crash
Authors: Ronald W. Masulis, Victor K. Ng
Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Oct., 1995), pp. 365-378
Copyright: 1995American Statistical Association