midnight
They carried long account books , and called out the transactions -- `` Delaware and Maryland sold to Beaumont and Company , '' `` Delware and Maryland sold to Tighe and Company , '' and so on . This simplified the bookkeeping of the various firms , and made for quicker and more stirring commercial transactions . Seats `` on ` change '' sold for two thousand dollars each . The members of the exchange had just passed rules limiting the trading to the hours between ten and three -LRB- before this they had been any time between morning and midnight -RRB- , and had fixed the rates at which brokers could do business , in the face of cut-throat schemes which had previously held . Severe penalties were fixed for those who failed to obey . In other words , things were shaping up for a great ` change business , and Edward Tighe felt , with other brokers , that there was a great future ahead . The Cowperwood family was by this time established in its new and larger and more tastefully furnished house on North Front Street , facing the river .