Date: Signed 1792 The Buttonwood Agreement is the precursor to the New York Stock Exchange. It was signed in 1792 under a Buttonwood tree on Wall St. - hence the name. Lucky it wasn't a Monkey Puzzle Tree - that would not be a dignified name at all. The agreement itself is fairly simple - 24 local merchants agreed that they would trade only with one another, and that they would take a 0.25% commission on whatever they traded.