Wall Street

Wall Street is a street in lower Manhattan and is a historic financial center of the United States. It is the the home of the New York Stock Exchange, the world's largest stock exchange by overall average daily trading volume and by total market capitalization of its listed companies. It has been, or used to be, the headquarters of a number of the largest U.S. brokerages, investment banks, and stock exchanges, including NASDAQ, the New York Mercantile Exchange, the New York Board of Trade, and the former American Stock Exchange.

The street was named after the wooden wall Dutch colonists built in this area in 1653 to defend themselves from the British and Native Americans.

The term "Wall Street" can refer to big business interests against those of small business and the working of middle class, which are sometimes collectively called “Main Street”.