Evolution, Pirates, and Dark Pools: The Origination and Future of Stock Exchanges in the United States, 1790 - 2011

The accelerated pace of technological change, the constant addition of new tradable securities, and the current wave of consolidation among some of the biggest stock exchanges in the United States and abroad would seem to indicate that we are entering uncharted territories in the development of financial markets. But are we? A look back at the evolution of the stock exchange in the United States specifically over the last 250 years tells a different tale: that the current trends are a famil...