The Buttonwood Agreement that got the New York Stock Exchange started—a single, handwritten page—couldn’t have been more low-tech.
Since that document was signed on May 17, 1792, by 24 stockbrokers who often conducted business under a buttonwood tree outside 68 Wall St., the financial markets have eagerly embraced new technologies.
The adoption of revolutionary advances such as the telegraph and artificial intelligence have been driven by two entwined desires: the need for more speed to transmit orders and data, and the need for more investors to fund an ever-growing economy.
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