Today with Demonstrators Rallying on Wall St. Against Federal Bailout it's a wonder the ghosts that haunt the building are not up in arms. And a few Paranormal Intuitives, Mediums and Ghost Hunting Investigators in the crowd feel it's disturbing the ghosts.

There are several types of spirits and ghosts that haunt the New York Stock Exchange building: the most prominent are The Intelligent Spirit and The Residual Spirit. Both seem to haunt the old stock exchange building to several degrees. Not to many will admit that the stock exchange is really haunted by the dead. But in truth only a handful will really tell you the truth. Many or too busy to tell you and still others fear that their credibility to do their job would be in question if they told the world that paranormal activity is in the midst of daily business.

You can't get answers about the many, many ghosts of Wall Street unless it is off the record. You really need to know someone there that has had an expeirence to find out the truth. But those that do come forward to tell the tales of the New York Stick xchanges many ghosts and encounters or to shy to let the world know who thy are.

The Intelligent Wall Street Spirit is what many believe to be the traditional idea of a ghost. The lonely lost personality or spirit that for some reason didn't cross over correctly to the other side at the moment of death. Possibly from the doom or gloom of mass financial woes or unfinished trading's. These lost capitalist spirits often haunt the pits and invade the traders realm of consciousness. Many will not speak of the ghostly encounters in fear of causing a panic.

The New York Stock Exchange ten years after the crash

CREDIT: Gottscho-Schleisner, Inc., photographer. "New York Stock Exchange. View III."" April 19, 1939. Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America: Photographs by Samuel Gottscho and William Schleisner, 1935-1955, American Memory collections, Library of Congress

The old building is also a U.S. National Historic Landmark. So it has seen a few deaths and tragic endings to human life over the many years it has stood. On September 16, 1920, a bomb exploded on Wall Street outside the NYSE building, killing 33 people and injuring more than 400. The perpetrators were never found. The NYSE building and some buildings nearby, such as the JP Morgan building, still have marks on their facades caused by the bombing.

These dead of the unfortunate bombings victims are said to be very active spirits. The 33 who died are all thought to be the ghosts that haunt the halls and open trading floor.

The Black Thursday crash of the Exchange on October 24, 1929, and the sell-off panic which started on Black Tuesday, October 29, are often blamed for precipitating the Great Depression of 1929. many traders and investors are said to have flung themselves to their deaths as well as a rash of suicides around the nation.

In an effort to try to restore investor confidence, the Exchange unveiled a fifteen-point program aimed to upgrade protection for the investing public on October 31, 1938.

On October 1, 1934, the exchange was registered as a national securities exchange with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, with a president and a thirty-three member board. On February 18, 1971 the non-profit corporation was formed, and the number of board members was reduced to twenty-five. Some believe this is when many of the ghost became more active. In hushed tones some spoke of how the actual ghosts made themselves known to those in charge at the time. but this could be just another urban myth some say.

With fortunes lost many lives have been cut short also over the generations. And to these particular times many of the Speculating Spooks and Specters are said to have originated.

1792 - The NYSE acquires its first traded securities
1817 - The constitution of the New York Stock and Exchange Board is adopted
1867 - The First Stock Ticker
1896 - Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) first published in The Wall Street Journal
1903 - NYSE moves into new quarters at 18 Broad Street
1907 - Panic of 1907
1914 - World War I causes the longest exchange shutdown: four months, two weeks
1915 - Market price is given in dollars
1929 - Central quote system established; Black Thursday (October 24) and Black Tuesday (October 29) signal coming of Great Depression
1943 - Trading floor is opened to women
1949 - Longest (eight-year) bull market begins
1954 - DJIA surpasses its 1929 peak
1966 - NYSE creates the Common Stock Index; floor data fully automated
1970 - Securities Investor Protection Corporation established
1971 - NYSE recognized as Not-for-Profit organization
1987 - Black Monday, October 19, sees the largest one-day DJIA percentage drop
1991 - DJIA exceeds 3,000
1996 - Real-time ticker introduced
1999 - DJIA exceeds 10,000
2000 - First NYSE global index launched under the ticker NYIID
2001 - Trading in fractions (n/16) ends, replaced by decimals (increments of $.01, see Decimalisation); September 11, 2001 attacks occur, closing NYSE for 4 sessions
2003 - NYSE Composite Index re launched and value set equal to 5,000 points
2006 - NYSE and ArcaEx merge, creating NYSE Arca and forming the publicly owned, for-profit NYSE Group, Inc.; in turn, NYSE Group merges with Euronext, creating the first trans-Atlantic stock exchange group; DJIA tops 12,000 on October 19
2007 - US President George W. Bush shows up unannounced to the Floor about an hour and a half before a Federal Open Market Committee interest-rate decision on January 31.
2007 - NYSE announces its merger with the American Stock Exchange; NYSE Composite closes above 10,000 on June 1; DJIA closes above 14,000 on July 19.
2008- Monday, September 15, 2008; Largest point drop since reopening after September 11th, 2001 attacks. DJIA closes over 500 points lower amid fear of bank failures. This is followed with a 449 point drop on Wednesday, September 17 after the Federal Reserve gives AIG an $85 billion loan to prevent its bankruptcy and news reports of housing starts falling to a 17-year low. This leads to the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue new rules to curb short-selling.

On October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dropped 508 points, a 22.6% loss in a single day, the biggest one-day drop the exchange had yet experienced, prompting officials at the exchange to invoke for the first time the "circuit breaker" rule to halt all trading. This was a very controversial move and led to a quick change in the rule; trading now halts for an hour, two hours, or the rest of the day when the DJIA drops 10, 20, or 30 percent, respectively. In the afternoon, the 10% and 20% drops will halt trading for a shorter period of time, but a 30% drop will always close the exchange for the day. The rationale behind the trading halt was to give investors a chance to cool off and reevaluate their positions. Black Monday was followed by Terrible Tuesday, a day in which the Exchange's systems did not perform well and some people had difficulty completing their trades.

The Big Board Ghosts

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), nicknamed the "Big Board", is a stock exchange based in New York City. It is the largest stock exchange in the world by dollar volume and has 2,764 listed securities. It ranks fourth in the world in terms of company listings with 3,200 companies, behind the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) of India, London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. As of December 31, 2006, the combined capitalization of all New York Stock Exchange listed companies was $25.0 trillion.

The NYSE is operated by NYSE Euronext, which was formed by the NYSE's merger with the fully electronic stock exchange Euronext. The New York Stock Exchange trading floor is located at 11 Wall Street, and is composed of four rooms used for the facilitation of trading. A fifth trading room, located at 30 Broad Street, was closed in February 2007. The main building, located at 18 Broad Street between the corners of Wall Street and Exchange Place, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978.

A dead pit boss is said to haunt the floor. one inside trader says that his ghosts is well known amongst those that have encountered him on a daily basis. it is said that he died in the midst of the 1987 Black Monday, October 19, sees the largest one-day DJIA percentage drop from a heart attack. Many who knew him over the years said they knew he was around because when alive you could fell the heat of his body and breath next to you . over the recent years those new to the floor say they have felt his presence whether they knew of him or not.

Many well known Paranormal researchers believe that since the 700 Billion dollar Bailout is about to be set in stone, that a few old ghosts have come out of the woodworks to haunt those in charge of such decisions. Some ghosts are said to be those that died away from the building from the stress they had in life and just returned to t the Exchange to oversee those that have taken their place. Many paranormal intuitive's say this is so to warn others not to follow in their footsteps.

One well known trader is said to be psychic and from the first day he set foot on the floor in 2008- Monday, September 15, 2008 he was warned by a ghosts that calamity was to be expected as the days ahead went on. This is followed with a 449 point drop on Wednesday, September 17 after the Federal Reserve gives AIG an $85 billion loan to prevent its bankruptcy and news reports of housing starts falling to a 17-year low. This leads to the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue new rules to curb short-selling.

The origin of the NYSE can be traced to May 17, 1792, when the Buttonwood Agreement was signed by 24 stock brokers outside of 68 Wall Street in New York under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street which earlier was the site of a stockade fence. On March 8, 1817, the organization drafted a constitution and renamed itself the "New York Stock & Exchange Board". (This name was shortened to its current form in 1863.) Anthony Stockholm was elected the Exchange's first president. Some believe that the ghost of Stockholm still haunts his old office and the building daily.

The Intellectual Spirit like Stockholm shows intelligence and consciousness, and often interacts with those in the midst of trading on the floor. Sometimes the spirit manifests as a rush of air, a cold chill, or, a strong "human" presence. Their interactions are detected through sight, sound, physical contact, and smell. Knocking, rapping noises and scratching are frequent manifestations when all is quiet at the end of the day at the final bell.

Many will tell you that during the heat of trading it's also possible to experience a ghost and not even know you did. Often the occurrence is noted after the day is done and mentally those that had the experience have time to think.

The Residual Spirits effects is more common in the building during the trading day not at night. These types of spirits rarely interact with people and often occupy a specific site, or inhabit a specific item. Some say the bell is haunted others say ghosts roam the halls and the pit after hours.

One paranormal Investigator, Norman Salinas believes that the energy that happens everyday causes these restless ghost to be present consistently. He believes that many or of a few that have actually died on the trading floor from heart attacks from the pressure of the day. They are an indentation left behind; they usually mark a traumatic event like the big crash or sudden death of a trader. This type of haunting is hard to miss. The haunting is like a video or audiotape playing over and over again. It repeats its actions indefinitely. Many say they have seen dead colleagues standing next to them at different points and times of the day. A Wall Street spirit or ghosts often appears first to people whom are sensitive enough to see them, and second, to those whom fear them. A spirit usually makes itself less known to people who are less receptive, and to those who are unafraid.

A few who work on the cleaning crews that work in the building at night say they have been told not to speak of the paranormal or their encounters inside the old building. Though a few have broken the rules over the years. The most infamous Wall Street ghost story is that of a ghosts often seen weeping sitting in the center of the trade floor. When you walk up to what seems to be a real person he looks up at you with tear filled blood shot tearing eyes and simply disappears.

About Mike Holt

Mike Holt is a Ghost Hunter from New York, New York. He has researched many Ghosts in the City from the Garment District, The City Docks, the notorious waterfront and Wall Street.

A real Ghostbuster since 1968 the man has seen it all and encountered the truths about New York's most famous haunting's and paranormal encounters.