What it's like to ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange

I was going for the opening bell at 9:30 am, so I arrived about half-an-hour early. Airline company Delta was celebrating its 100th anniversary, and its CEO Ed Bastian, as well as a few of the company’s pilots and flight attendants, were set to ring the bell.

Guests at the exchange are greeted at the entrance by a red carpet and velvet ropes, leading them into the building.

The NYSE has lots of artifacts from the companies that list with them, and its Delta memorabilia was on display. Here are a few flight bags they used to sell to customers, along with the company’s first automated flight ticket.

After spending the morning in a boardroom, where they’re served breakfast, guests then head upstairs to the trading floor.

As the market hadn’t opened yet, the atmosphere was pretty quiet. Looking around at the trading posts, I recognized many of the faces I’ve seen in photos from the trading floor.

Around 20 minutes before the bell rang, I headed up toward the bell-ringing area and caught an up-close look at CNBC hosts Jim Cramer and Carl Quintanilla. The set is positioned at what used to be trading post nine, right in front of the bell.

At about 9:20, Bastian and the other Delta guests came up to sign the NYSE’s guest book. NYSE President Lynn Martin joined them. The exchange has stacks of guest books going back decades.

After a few minutes, the LED screen behind the bell balcony opened up, and Martin and Bastian appeared.

Either Martin or Taylor usually accompanies the guests to ring the bell, giving them instructions.

Across from the balcony, there’s a clock and TV screen showing the balcony.

At the open, the bell rings 10 seconds before 9:30 am, and the trading session begins when the ringing ends. At the close, the bell starts ringing at 3:59:45, letting traders know they have 15 seconds to get their last trades in.

About thirty seconds before the bell rings, the NYSE staff pumps up the bell ringers and the onlookers, rousing applause and cheers.

Guests actually ring the bell by pushing a button. Sometimes, Taylor said, things can go wrong.

“It’s important for the bell ringer to understand that they’re actually controlling the bell and there’s a purpose for it. Because if they screw up, the traders will derisively boo them,” Taylor said.

He added: “We start clapping 30 seconds before, and I always warn people, ‘When I say here we go, that is not for the bell, that’s for clapping.’ Every once in a while someone will start ringing the bell way too early.”

Kudos to Bastian, who rang the bell punctually.

After the bell, the folks at NYSE were nice enough to take me backstage, along the route that bell-ringers take to get to the balcony.

Once you scan in to the area, you head up some stairs.

The walls are lined with panels that guests have signed. Typically, guests sign the boards after they’ve rang the bell and are heading back down to the trading floor.

Spot anyone famous?

Here’s NYSE Chair Sharon Bowen signing the wall in 2024.

Behold, the door to the balcony. For all the pomp and circumstance of the exchange, the entry was much less grandiose than I would have expected, and I think that’s kind of cool. I mean, this could easily be mistaken for a closet — but no, it’s the portal to the world’s greatest symbol of capitalism.

Fun fact: the balcony has an occupancy limit of 16.

Unfortunately, when I took this picture, the balcony was still being used for photos.

But here’s a closer look from when TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb rang the bell in 2023.

And the view looking out over the exchange from the balcony. If you look closely at the monitor in the middle of the photo, you can see back into the stairwell where you enter from.