The New York Stock Exchange began under a buttonwood tree. Twenty-four brokers signed the Buttonwood Agreement on Wall Street in 1792; the board that grew out of it was known as the New York Stock & Exchange Board until 1863, when it took the name it carries today.

The stock market is more than 400 years old. In 1602 the Dutch East India Company began issuing tradable paper shares, creating the Amsterdam exchange — the world’s first modern stock market, and a direct ancestor of today’s Euronext.

Japanese stocks compounded at roughly 17% a year through the 1970s and nearly 29% a year through the 1980s — turning $10,000 in 1970 into about $610,000 by 1989. The bubble then burst so completely that the Nikkei 225 didn’t reclaim its December 1989 peak until February 2024, a 35-year round trip.

The only four-year losing streak in Dow history is the Great Depression: the index fell 17% in 1929, 34% in 1930, 53% in 1931, and 23% in 1932. 1931 remains the worst calendar year the Dow has ever recorded.