what is the purpose of the securities act of 1933
Securities Act of 1933 The United States Congress enacted the Securities Act of 1933 (the 1933 Act, the Securities Act, the Truth in Securities Act, the Federal Securities Act, or the '33 Act, Title I of Pub. L. 73-22, 48 Stat. 74, enacted May 27, 1933, codified at 15 U.S.C. § 77a et seq.), in the aftermath of the stock market crash of 1929 and during the ensuing Great Depression. Legislated pursuant to the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution, it requires that any offer or sale of securities using the means and instrumentalities of interstate commerce be registered with the SEC pursuant to the 1933 Act, unless an exemption from registration exists under the law. "Means and instrumentalities of interstate commerce" is extremely broad, and it is virtually impossible to avoid the operation of this statute by attempting to offer or sell a security without using an "instrumentality" of interstate commerce. Any use of a telephone, for example, or the mails, would probably be enough to subject the transaction to the statute.
New York Stock Exchange The earliest recorded organization of securities trading in New York among brokers directly dealing with each other can be traced to the Buttonwood Agreement. Previously securities exchange had been intermediated by the auctioneers who also conducted more mundane auctions of commodities such as wheat and tobacco.[13] On May 17, 1792 twenty four brokers signed the Buttonwood Agreement which set a floor commission rate charged to clients and bound the signers to give preference to the other signers in securities sales. The earliest securities traded were mostly governmental securities such as War Bonds from the Revolutionary War and First Bank of the United States stock,[13] although Bank of New York stock was a non-governmental security traded in the early days.[14] The Bank of North America along with the First Bank of the United States and the Bank of New York were the first shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange.[15]