Nyse

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is currently comprised of over 3,640 companies valued at $21 trillion dollars (NYSE, 2006). These companies are situated in many different locations throughout the world, with the majority of the NYSE's businesses being in the United States. Typically most of these companies are large, midsize and small capitalization companies. As the NYSE market has grown, more and more foreign businesses have continued to appear on the market. The foreign market investment sector represents 33% of the investments. This 33% is comprised of about 453 companies with a staggering market value of $7.1 trillion (NYSE, 2006). The current world regional business breakdown for the NYSE is as follows, the United States of America 3123, Canada 93, Caribbean / Bermuda / Puerto Rico 59, Latin America 89, Middle East / Africa 10 and Asia / Pacific 81 (NYSE, 2006).

The NYSE Group, Inc. (NYX) is the largest stock exchange in the world by dollar volume " (Wikipedia, 2006) and is located directly in the heart of New York City at 11 Wall Street. The NYSE Group employs nearly 2000 full time employees for the daily operations of the stock exchange. The five top-level mangers that are responsible for the successful operation of the NYSE are: Chief Executive Officer (Mr. John A. Thain, age 50), President and CO-Chief Operating Officer (Ms. Catherine R. Kinney, Age 53), Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President (Mr. Nelson Chai, age 40), President of Project Management (Mr. Gerald Putnam, Age 47) and Chief Regulatory Officer (Mr. Richard G. Ketchum, age 55) (Yahoo Finance, 2006).

The regulation of the NYSE is a very serious business matter. The protection of investors and companies from monetary loss due to inappropriate conduct and illegal business transactions are paramount. Without investor trust, the NYSE market would collapse and cease to exist. This very important fact has resulted in an abundance of very detailed regulations and laws for the stock exchange and also for those businesses that wish to be listed on the NYSE.

According to NYSE group

The market maintains its integrity through the combined efforts of