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Definition 2024


wirehouse

wirehouse

English

Alternative forms

  • wire-house
  • wire house

Noun

wirehouse (plural wirehouses)

  1. (Canada, US, finance) A major brokerage company, generally nationwide, with multiple branches.
  2. (Canada, US, finance, obsolete) A brokerage company with a telegraph line, telephone line, or electronic communication network.
    • 1904, N.Y. Evening Post 18 June, 1904 (Financial Section) 1/7
      The so-called ‘wire house’ …is a product of the boom times.
    • 1905, The World’s work, Volume 9, Doubleday, Page & Co.:
      The “market information” is more diversified than formerly, and in many ways the “wire house” can fill a place that the old-style …

Usage notes

In contemporary use generally used narrowly, referring specifically to the Big 4 retail brokerage firms operating in the US: Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, Morgan Stanley, UBS, and Wells Fargo & Co. In looser usage, applied to any large brokerage.

Hypernyms

See also

References