Curb market

The phrase curbstone broker or curb-stone broker refers to a broker who conducts trading on the literal curbs of a financial district. Such brokers were prevalent in the 1800s and early 1900s, and the most famous curb market existed on Broad Street in the financial district of Manhattan. Curbstone brokers often traded that were speculative in nature, as well as stocks in small industrial companies such as iron, textiles and chemicals (see curb trading). Efforts to organize and standardize the market started early in the 20th century under notable curb-stone brokers such as Emanuel S. Mendels.

The New Board was an organization of curb-stone brokers established in 1836 in New York City to compete with the . The first local rival of the NYSE, the New Board emerged among the rough and tumble conditions of the very speculative curb-side trading during the down-turn in the market in general. The "curb" or "outside" trading the exchange used a system in which "brokers and dealers traded directly with each other in the street near the exchange." To compete, the NYSE quickly began offering a second daily opportunity to buy or sell securities. At first, the New Board was very successful. It remained larger than the Big Board until 1845, but the New Board’s brokers were "crushed" by the Panic of 1837 and the recession that followed, and it folded in 1848.

Curbstone brokers often traded stocks that were speculative in nature. With the discovery of oil in the latter half of the 19th century, even oil stocks entered into the curb market. By 1865, following the American Civil War, stocks in small industrial companies, such as iron and steel, textiles and chemicals were first sold by curbstone brokers. In August 1865, a reporter described the curb market in front of the new exchange building on Broad Street. "There were at least a thousand people on the sidewalk and street... Buyer and seller, speculator and investor, operator and spectator, agent and principal, met face to face, upon the curb and beneath the sweltering sun, opened their mouths wide and screamed all manner of seeming nonsense at each other".

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