American Stock Exchange (Amex)

New York's other stock market, the American Stock Exchange Stock Exchange (Amex) is similar to the much bigger New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in its organisation and trading arrangements. However, Amex's presence in the equity markets has been squeezed by both the NYSE and NASDAQ. Indeed, it was taken over by NASDAQ in 1998, although it continues to run independently. Its origins date back to street trading in the late 19th century, and it was not until 1921 that it moved to a permanent building in Trinity Place in New York's financial district, where it is still based. By the mid-1960s the volume of stocks traded on Amex reached half the level of business done on the NYSE. Since then its relative importance has declined, so that at the end of 2002 the aggregate market value of domestic companies whose shares were listed on Amex was below $100 billion, compared with over $9,000 billion for the NYSE. However, Amex has been successful in derivatives trading, especially in exchange traded funds, which it launched in 1993 and whose trading it dominates, with US market share of over 90%.