The 1950s:

u  News analysts started to provide advice on picking stocks on radio and Television.

Year 1950:

u  Warren Buffett enrolled at Columbia Business School and became the student of Benjamin Graham.

 Year 1954:

u  For the first time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged through the record high of 381.18 in 1929. The Eisenhower bull market started.

 Year 1955:

u  McLean Industries bought Pan-Atlanfic Steamship and Waterman Steamship in 1955, marking the first case of leveraged buyout (LBO).

u  The National City Bank of New York (later known as Citibank) completed a merger with First National Bank and changed its name to The First National City Bank of New York. This bank later grew into the current Citibank.

u  Chase National Bank merged with the Bank of the Manhattan Company and renamed itself Chase Manhattan Bank after the merger.

 Year 1956:

u  Goldman Sachs managed the Ford Motor Company’s IPO, which raised US$657 million and was the largest IPO to date. Goldman, commonly seen as a pure investment bank, was a major contributor to the development of the IPO market in the early 20th century. It was Goldman who popularized the concept of Price/Earnings ratio (P/E ratio)

 Year 1958:

u  The Small Business Investment Act of 1958 passed this year, paving the way for the venture investment rush in Silicon Valley in the 1960s.

 Year 1959:

u  This year, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) for the first time in history reported a total transaction volume of more than one billion shares.

u  The Oppenheimer Fund was founded. It was the first SEC-authenticated fund open to small investors.

u  J.P. Morgan merged with the Guaranty Trust Company of New York to form the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company.