Curbstone broker

Curb brokers in Wall Street in 1920, a year before much of the trading was moved into a dedicated exchange building. That year, journalist Edwin C. Hill described the curb trading on lower Broad Street as "a roaring, swirling whirlpool... like nothing else under the astonishing sky that is its only roof."
Broad Street and Curb Brokers, circa 1909.
Stock trading on the New York Curb Association market on Broad Street circa 1916, with brokers and clients signalling from street to offices. Many members used flamboyant hand signals to conduct trades.
Curb market at Broad Street 1902. Wrote a local resident in 1907, each morning at 10 o'clock the "multitude" of "brokers, brokers' clerks, lemonade and provision vendors, messenger boys, 'lambs' awaiting slaughter, and numerous other attaches and camp followers of the noisy and disorderly throng breaks forth with a volley of discordant screams which rend the air for several blocks, and then bedlam reigns until the gong again sounds at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, to the confusion and discomfort of the whole surrounding neighborhood."

The phrase curbstone broker or curb-stone broker refers to a broker who conducts trading on the literal curbs of a financial district.

- Curbstone broker

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NYSE American

American stock exchange situated in New York City.

Curb brokers in Wall Street, New York City, 1920, a year before the trading was moved indoors. That year, journalist Edwin C. Hill described the curb trading on lower Broad Street as "a roaring, swirling whirlpool... like nothing else under the astonishing sky that is its only roof."
American Stock Exchange building, constructed in 1921.
The text reads: "On June 27, 1921, the curbstone brokers moved from their outdoor Market on Broad Street to establish on this site the indoor securities market that became the American Stock Exchange."
2004: Vice Adm. Gary Roughead, right, rings the opening bell at the American Stock Exchange, during the 17th Annual Fleet Week in New York
Old American Stock Exchange Building 2009

The exchange grew out of the loosely organized curb market of curbstone brokers on Broad Street in Manhattan.

Broad Street (Manhattan)

North–south street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City.

The New York Stock Exchange Building (right) at Broad and Wall Streets
Old Dutch house on Broad Street, 1831
Explosion of a warehouse on Broad Street during the Great New York City Fire of 1845, July 19, 1845
The Stock Exchange at 10-12 Broad Street, in 1882
Curb market at Broad Street 1902. As a local resident wrote in 1907, each morning at 10 o'clock the "multitude" of "brokers, brokers' clerks, lemonade and provision vendors, messenger boys, 'lambs' awaiting slaughter, and numerous other attaches and camp followers of the noisy and disorderly throng breaks forth with a volley of discordant screams which rend the air for several blocks, and then bedlam reigns until the gong again sounds at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, to the confusion and discomfort of the whole surrounding neighborhood."
15 Broad Street

A curb market of curbstone brokers became established on Broad Street in the mid-1800s, growing in part out of the Open Board of Brokers, previously in a building on New Street established in 1864.

Emanuel S. Mendels

American businessman and broker.

Model of the Acquisition Process.

He was a leading curbstone broker who organized the Curb Market Agency in 1908 that developed appropriate trading rules for curbstone brokers.

New Board

Organization of curb-stone brokers established in 1836 in New York City to compete with the New York Stock and Exchange Board.

Model of the Acquisition Process.

The first local rival of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the New Board emerged in 1835 among the rough and tumble conditions of the very speculative curb-side trading during the down-turn in the market in general.

Carl Pforzheimer

Curb brokers in Wall Street in 1920, a year before much of the trading was moved into a dedicated exchange building. That year, journalist Edwin C. Hill described the curb trading on lower Broad Street as "a roaring, swirling whirlpool... like nothing else under the astonishing sky that is its only roof."

Carl Howard Pforzheimer (1879–1957) was an American banker and curbstone broker based in New York City.

American Stock Exchange Building

Former headquarters of the American Stock Exchange.

Top of the building's Greenwich Street facade with the "New York Curb Market" carved plaque below the sixth floor
Plaque commemorating the opening of the building
Seen from Greenwich Street

Starting in the 1880s, Emanuel S. Mendels and Carl H. Pforzheimer attempted to standardize the loosely organized curb market of curbstone brokers on Broad Street.

Raynor, Nicholas & Truesdell

New York brokerage based on Broadway in the 1920s.

That day, several curb brokers were called in to testify on their dealings with the firm's check history.