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Probably he's referring the "real time" part. Electronic ticker tapes were invented in 1867, and were relatively prevalent by the 1870s. (The Dow was first calc
by peller 10y ago
Probably he's referring the "real time" part. Electronic ticker tapes were invented in 1867, and were relatively prevalent by the 1870s. (The Dow was first calculated on May 26, 1896.) But even still, for average investors, most information back then would have traveled at horse, train, or steamboat speeds.
- umanwizard 10y agoOkay, but wouldn't that also apply to prices?
- peller 10y agoCertainly it would. I'm not exactly sure how a longer-term investor would have gone about buying stock then, but probably there was a broker in their city that had a big ticker board showing the current prices (as quickly as some kid could write them up on it as they came in from the tape). And you'd walk up to a window and place your order, and just like today, you'd actually pay whatever price your order was filled at back on the exchange's floor (well, today it's an ECN, but you get my point). Eventually, your broker would deliver physical stock certificates to you. For shorter-term or smaller transactions, bucket shops were very common. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucket_shop_(stock_market) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucket_shop_(stock_market) There's all sorts of shenanigans that went on with those - they were more like bookies; you never actually owned the underlying securities you were speculating on. It's also worth remembering that things were vastly less regulated and insider trading/outright manipulation were very common (the SEC didn't come into existence until 1934). Good reading on this time period if you're interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reminiscences_of_a_Stock_Operator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reminiscences_of_a_Stock_Opera...