About AAIC

Historical Perspective

Around 1688, a group of wealthy individuals met regularly at Edward Lloyd's Coffee House on Tower Street in the City of London to provide insurance for the thriving worldwide British shipping trade. In 1734, Lloyd's List was established as a regular weekly publication. By 1774, still a club, the underwriters had elected a committee and moved into their first premises at the Royal Exchange. Across the Atlantic, in 1792, a group of 24 merchants and businessmen met under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street in New York City. They signed a formal agreement, known as the "Buttonwood Agreement", to trade shares of businesses. The Buttonwood Agreement is the basis for the institution that is known today as the New York Stock Exchange. When the NYSE rented their first offices at 40 Wall St. in 1817 and moved indoors, those traders who were not members continued trading on the street; the Curb Market was formed. Trading on The Curb was formalized in 1860 and became known as The Curb Exchange. In 1921, The Curb acquired a building to operate in and became the American Stock Exchange. In 1938, the National Association of Securities Dealers ") was formed by the Maloney Act amendments to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. In 1960, the NASD formed the Over the Counter exchange ("OTC" market). Then, during the 1970's, the NASD formed the computerized network known as the NASDAQ. In each case, like-minded individuals banded together to form a club. By formalizing their organizations, managing them acutely and using the power of collaboration, these individuals created the bases for the most powerful economic institutions in the world - the capital markets.

Motivation

The inclination to band together for a purpose is fundamental to human activity. You name it; there's a club, company or organization for it - from your local Garden Club to OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries). The economic power of organizations has been demonstrated throughout history by acts of wealth destruction, as exemplified by OPEC during the 1970's, and wealth creation, as exemplified by the capital markets during the 19th and 20th centuries. Further, without this inclination, stamps and rare coins would have no value beyond their face value; baseball cards, celebrity autographs, and comic books would have no value at all.

Today, there is another vast engine of economic wealth creation driving the entrepreneurial revolution that we've witnessed from 1980 to the present - the individual investor in equity securities of private, unlisted/unquoted companies. While the Fortune 1000 companies lost 2.4 million jobs from 1980 to 2000, the domestic economy has added more than 10 million jobs. So-called "structural unemployment" - the minimum unemployment "possible" has fallen to 4%-5% from 6%-7%. By far the largest component of this engine is the estimated 2 million investors who invest about $50 Billion annually in private, early-stage, and startup companies and who are referred to as "Angel Investors" in the business and investment communities. Although vast, the Angel investment community could be larger still and is, taken as a whole, disorganized, undisciplined, and unfocused.

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