From Wall Street to Chicago, why stock exchanges ring bells

The New York Stock Exchange, the largest in the world by market capitalization, has opened with sonic fanfare for more than 150 years.

The New York Stock Exchange opens every workday morning at 9:30 am ET with the fast-paced bang-clang of a gleaming brass bell. The stock exchange, the largest in the world by market capitalization, has opened with sonic fanfare for more than 150 years. The sound, so iconic it is trademarked, reverberates across the trading floor again just before 4 pm ET, when the stock market closes. Once a hubbub of screaming floor brokers and countless sheets of paper strewn on the ground, much of the trading is now electronic in NYSE’s hybrid market. The mayhem has largely died down. From Wall Street to the Nasdaq Exchange in Times Square to the Chicago Board Options Exchange, loud, ringing bells bookend each trading session. Stock exchanges say that the bell ringing remains both a critical guide and a ceremony that celebrates the market’s resilience through devastating lows and exuberant highs. “There may be less people responding to those bells, but there’s still a significant percentage,” said Peter Asch, the NYSE’s chief historian. “That bell is an important marker for them, whether they’re putting the order in electronically or physically going to the point of sale.” The New York Stock Exchange had about 5,000 people on the floor at its most crowded, between the 1950s and the beginning of the 21st century. Now, there’s roughly 300, according to Asch. There are cameras and producers for business television networks that film at the exchange and invited guests. The exchange is not open to the public.