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.