Evolution of the NYSE bell

NYSE Archivist Pete Asch discusses the evolution of the NYSE Bell.

Transcript

00:00 I'm fascinated with the evolution of the bell.

00:02 Everyone knows the opening bell, the closing bell

00:04 from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

00:06 It is one of the most highly sought after opportunities

00:09 for business leaders, politicians, prominent people,

00:11 Pete, all around the world wanna do that.

00:14 But the evolution of it is really cool.

00:15 It might not be as intuitive as people think.

00:17 Why is there a bell anyway?

00:18 - So it's very simple.

00:19 When we open 9203, we need a way to let everyone know

00:21 we're gonna start trading.

00:22 And then that idea goes back actually to the 1870s.

00:25 In the 1870s, we switched to what we have today,

00:27 a continuous market.

00:28 And we used, originally we used a Chinese gong

00:30 to open the floor.

00:31 And then when this building opened in 1903,

00:32 we added the bell.

00:33 But the bell was in the back.

00:34 You know, most people had this memory

00:35 of it being front and center where it is now.

00:37 It's only been there for five years.

00:39 It was in the back because we had no idea

00:40 that people would be interested.

00:41 And there's actually a funny story about that.

00:43 Jeff Sprecher, who is the founder and chairman of ICE,

00:45 the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange,

00:47 when he brought his company public in 2005,

00:50 he called his mom very excited to let her know.

00:52 Like, I made it, I rang the bell at the New York Stock

00:53 Exchange, and his mom's response was,

00:55 "I didn't see any bell."

00:57 And so one of the things he did when he acquired

00:59 the New York Stock Exchange, when he renovated the floor,

01:01 was he put the bell front and center.

01:03 So that way, when his mom was ringing the bell,

01:05 you see the bell that they're ringing.

01:07 [BLANK_AUDIO]