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Stock market

A stock market, equity market, or share market is the aggregation of buyers and sellers of stocks (also called shares), which represent ownership claims on businesses; these may include securities listed on a public stock exchange as well as stock that is only traded privately, such as shares of private companies that are sold to investors through equity crowdfunding platforms. Investments are usually made with an investment strategy in mind.

Size of the market
The total market capitalization of all publicly traded stocks worldwide rose from US$2.5 trillion in 1980 to US$93.7 trillion at the end of 2020.

, there are 60 stock exchanges in the world. Of these, there are 16 exchanges with a market capitalization of $1 trillion or more, and they account for 87% of global market capitalization. Apart from the Australian Securities Exchange, these 16 exchanges are all in North America, Europe, or Asia.

By country, the largest stock markets as of January 2022 are in the United States of America (about 59.9%), followed by Japan (about 6.2%) and United Kingdom (about 3.9%).

Stock exchange
A stock exchange is an exchange (or bourse) where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell shares (equity stock), bonds, and other securities. Many large companies have their stocks listed on a stock exchange. This makes the stock more liquid and thus more attractive to many investors. The exchange may also act as a guarantor of settlement. These and other stocks may also be traded "over the counter" (OTC), that is, through a dealer. Some large companies will have their stock listed on more than one exchange in different countries, so as to attract international investors.

Stock exchanges may also cover other types of securities, such as fixed-interest securities (bonds) or (less frequently) derivatives, which are more likely to be traded OTC.

Trade in stock markets means the transfer (in exchange for money) of a stock or security from a seller to a buyer. This requires these two parties to agree on a price. Equities (stocks or shares) confer an ownership interest in a particular company.

Participants in the stock market range from small individual stock investors to larger investors, who can be based anywhere in the world, and may include banks, insurance companies, pension funds and hedge funds. Their buy or sell orders may be executed on their behalf by a stock exchange trader.

Some exchanges are physical locations where transactions are carried out on a trading floor, by a method known as open outcry. This method is used in some stock exchanges and commodities exchanges, and involves traders shouting bid and offer prices. The other type of stock exchange has a network of computers where trades are made electronically. An example of such an exchange is the NASDAQ.

A potential buyer bids a specific price for a stock, and a potential seller asks a specific price for the same stock. Buying or selling at the Market means you will accept any ask price or bid price for the stock. When the bid and ask prices match, a sale takes place, on a first-come, first-served basis if there are multiple bidders at a given price.

The purpose of a stock exchange is to facilitate the exchange of securities between buyers and sellers, thus providing a marketplace. The exchanges provide real-time trading information on the listed securities, facilitating price discovery.

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is a physical exchange, with a hybrid market for placing orders electronically from any location as well as on the trading floor. Orders executed on the trading floor enter by way of exchange members and flow down to a floor broker, who submits the order electronically to the floor trading post for the Designated market maker ("DMM") for that stock to trade the order. The DMM's job is to maintain a two-sided market, making orders to buy and sell the security when there are no other buyers or sellers. If a bid–ask spread exists, no trade immediately takes place – in this case, the DMM may use their own resources (money or stock) to close the difference. Once a trade has been made, the details are reported on the "tape" and sent back to the brokerage firm, which then notifies the investor who placed the order. Computers play an important role, especially for program trading.

The NASDAQ is an electronic exchange, where all of the trading is done over a computer network. The process is similar to the New York Stock Exchange. One or more NASDAQ market makers will always provide a bid and ask the price at which they will always purchase or sell 'their' stock.

The Paris Bourse, now part of Euronext, is an order-driven, electronic stock exchange. It was automated in the late 1980s. Prior to the 1980s, it consisted of an open outcry exchange. Stockbrokers met on the trading floor of the Palais Brongniart. In 1986, the CATS trading system was introduced, and the order matching system was fully automated.

People trading stock will prefer to trade on the most popular exchange since this gives the largest number of potential counter parties (buyers for a seller, sellers for a buyer) and probably the best price. However, there have always been alternatives such as brokers trying to bring parties together to trade outside the exchange. Some third markets that were popular are Instinet, and later Island and Archipelago (the latter two have since been acquired by Nasdaq and NYSE, respectively). One advantage is that this avoids the commissions of the exchange. However, it also has problems such as adverse selection. Financial regulators have probed dark pools.

Market participant
Market participants include individual retail investors, institutional investors (e.g., pension funds, insurance companies, mutual funds, index funds, exchange-traded funds, hedge funds, investor groups, banks and various other financial institutions), and also publicly traded corporations trading in their own shares. Robo-advisors, which automate investment for individuals are also major participants.

Indirect vs. Direct Investment
Indirect investment involves owning shares indirectly, such as via a mutual fund or an exchange traded fund. Direct investment involves direct ownership of shares.

Direct ownership of stock by individuals rose slightly from 17.8% in 1992 to 17.9% in 2007, with the median value of these holdings rising from $14,778 to $17,000. Indirect participation in the form of retirement accounts rose from 39.3% in 1992 to 52.6% in 2007, with the median value of these accounts more than doubling from $22,000 to $45,000 in that time. Rydqvist, Spizman, and Strebulaev attribute the differential growth in direct and indirect holdings to differences in the way each are taxed in the United States. Investments in pension funds and 401ks, the two most common vehicles of indirect participation, are taxed only when funds are withdrawn from the accounts. Conversely, the money used to directly purchase stock is subject to taxation as are any dividends or capital gains they generate for the holder. In this way, the current tax code incentivizes individuals to invest indirectly.

Participation by income and wealth strata
Rates of participation and the value of holdings differ significantly across strata of income. In the bottom quintile of income, 5.5% of households directly own stock and 10.7% hold stocks indirectly in the form of retirement accounts. The top decile of income has a direct participation rate of 47.5% and an indirect participation rate in the form of retirement accounts of 89.6%. The median value of directly owned stock in the bottom quintile of income is $4,000 and is $78,600 in the top decile of income as of 2007. The median value of indirectly held stock in the form of retirement accounts for the same two groups in the same year is $6,300 and $214,800 respectively. Since the Great Recession of 2008 households in the bottom half of the income distribution have lessened their participation rate both directly and indirectly from 53.2% in 2007 to 48.8% in 2013, while over the same period households in the top decile of the income distribution slightly increased participation 91.7% to 92.1%. The mean value of direct and indirect holdings at the bottom half of the income distribution moved slightly downward from $53,800 in 2007 to $53,600 in 2013. In the top decile, mean value of all holdings fell from $982,000 to $969,300 in the same time. The mean value of all stock holdings across the entire income distribution is valued at $269,900 as of 2013.

Participation by race and gender
The racial composition of stock market ownership shows households headed by whites are nearly four and six times as likely to directly own stocks than households headed by blacks and Hispanics respectively. As of 2011 the national rate of direct participation was 19.6%, for white households the participation rate was 24.5%, for black households it was 6.4% and for Hispanic households it was 4.3%. Indirect participation in the form of 401k ownership shows a similar pattern with a national participation rate of 42.1%, a rate of 46.4% for white households, 31.7% for black households, and 25.8% for Hispanic households. Households headed by married couples participated at rates above the national averages with 25.6% participating directly and 53.4% participating indirectly through a retirement account. 14.7% of households headed by men participated in the market directly and 33.4% owned stock through a retirement account. 12.6% of female-headed households directly owned stock and 28.7% owned stock indirectly.

Determinants and possible explanations of stock market participation
In a 2003 paper by Vissing-Jørgensen attempts to explain disproportionate rates of participation along wealth and income groups as a function of fixed costs associated with investing. Her research concludes that a fixed cost of $200 per year is sufficient to explain why nearly half of all U.S. households do not participate in the market. Participation rates have been shown to strongly correlate with education levels, promoting the hypothesis that information and transaction costs of market participation are better absorbed by more educated households. Behavioral economists Harrison Hong, Jeffrey Kubik and Jeremy Stein suggest that sociability and participation rates of communities have a statistically significant impact on an individual's decision to participate in the market. Their research indicates that social individuals living in states with higher than average participation rates are 5% more likely to participate than individuals that do not share those characteristics. This phenomenon also explained in cost terms. Knowledge of market functioning diffuses through communities and consequently lowers transaction costs associated with investing.

History
In 12th-century France, the courtiers de change were concerned with managing and regulating the debts of agricultural communities on behalf of the banks. Because these men also traded with debts, they could be called the first brokers. The Italian historian Lodovico Guicciardini described how, in late 13th-century Bruges, commodity traders gathered outdoors at a market square containing an inn owned by a family called Van der Beurze, and in 1409 they became the "Brugse Beurse", institutionalizing what had been, until then, an informal meeting. The idea quickly spread around Flanders and neighboring countries and "Beurzen" soon opened in Ghent and Rotterdam. International traders, and specially the Italian bankers, present in Bruges since the early 13th-century, took back the word in their countries to define the place for stock market exchange: first the Italians (Borsa), but soon also the French (Bourse), the Germans (börse), Russians (birža), Czechs (burza), Swedes (börs), Danes and Norwegians (børs). In most languages, the word coincides with that for money bag, dating back to the Latin bursa, from which obviously also derives the name of the Van der Beurse family.

In the middle of the 13th century, Venetian bankers began to trade in government securities. In 1351 the Venetian government outlawed spreading rumors intended to lower the price of government funds. Bankers in Pisa, Verona, Genoa and Florence also began trading in government securities during the 14th century. This was only possible because these were independent city-states not ruled by a duke but a council of influential citizens. Italian companies were also the first to issue shares. Companies in England and the Low Countries followed in the 16th century. Around this time, a joint stock company—one whose stock is owned jointly by the shareholders—emerged and became important for the colonization of what Europeans called the "New World". There are now stock markets in virtually every developed and most developing economies, with the world's largest markets being in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, India, China, Canada, Germany (Frankfurt Stock Exchange), France, South Korea and the Netherlands.

Importance
Even in the days before perestroika, socialism was never a monolith. Within the Communist countries, the spectrum of socialism ranged from the quasi-market, quasi-syndicalist system of Yugoslavia to the centralized totalitarianism of neighboring Albania. One time I asked Professor von Mises, the great expert on the economics of socialism, at what point on this spectrum of statism would he designate a country as "socialist" or not. At that time, I wasn't sure that any definite criterion existed to make that sort of clear-cut judgment. And so I was pleasantly surprised at the clarity and decisiveness of Mises's answer. "A stock market," he answered promptly. "A stock market is crucial to the existence of capitalism and private property. For it means that there is a functioning market in the exchange of private titles to the means of production. There can be no genuine private ownership of capital without a stock market: there can be no true socialism if such a market is allowed to exist."

Function and purpose
The stock market is one of the most important ways for companies to raise money, along with debt markets which are generally more imposing but do not trade publicly. This allows businesses to be publicly traded, and raise additional financial capital for expansion by selling shares of ownership of the company in a public market. The liquidity that an exchange affords the investors enables their holders to quickly and easily sell securities. This is an attractive feature of investing in stocks, compared to other less liquid investments such as property and other immoveable assets.

History has shown that the price of stocks and other assets is an important part of the dynamics of economic activity, and can influence or be an indicator of social mood. An economy where the stock market is on the rise is considered to be an up-and-coming economy. The stock market is often considered the primary indicator of a country's economic strength and development.

Rising share prices, for instance, tend to be associated with increased business investment and vice versa. Share prices also affect the wealth of households and their consumption. Therefore, central banks tend to keep an eye on the control and behavior of the stock market and, in general, on the smooth operation of financial system functions. Financial stability is the raison d'être of central banks.

Exchanges also act as the clearinghouse for each transaction, meaning that they collect and deliver the shares, and guarantee payment to the seller of a security. This eliminates the risk to an individual buyer or seller that the counterparty could default on the transaction.

The smooth functioning of all these activities facilitates economic growth in that lower costs and enterprise risks promote the production of goods and services as well as possibly employment. In this way the financial system is assumed to contribute to increased prosperity, although some controversy exists as to whether the optimal financial system is bank-based or market-based.

Recent events such as the Global Financial Crisis have prompted a heightened degree of scrutiny of the impact of the structure of stock markets (called market microstructure), in particular to the stability of the financial system and the transmission of systemic risk.

Relation to the modern financial system
A transformation is the move to electronic trading to replace human trading of listed securities.

Behavior of stock prices

Changes in stock prices are mostly caused by external factors such as socioeconomic conditions, inflation, exchange rates. Intellectual capital does not affect a company stock's current earnings. Intellectual capital contributes to a stock's return growth.

The efficient-market hypothesis (EMH) is a hypothesis in financial economics that states that asset prices reflect all available information at the current time.

The 'hard' efficient-market hypothesis does not explain the cause of events such as the crash in 1987, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 22.6 percent—the largest-ever one-day fall in the United States.

This event demonstrated that share prices can fall dramatically even though no generally agreed upon definite cause has been found: a thorough search failed to detect any 'reasonable' development that might have accounted for the crash. (Such events are predicted to occur strictly by randomness, although very rarely.) It seems also to be true more generally that many price movements (beyond those which are predicted to occur 'randomly') are not occasioned by new information; a study of the fifty largest one-day share price movements in the United States in the post-war period seems to confirm this.

A 'soft' EMH has emerged which does not require that prices remain at or near equilibrium, but only that market participants cannot systematically profit from any momentary 'market anomaly'. Moreover, while EMH predicts that all price movement (in the absence of change in fundamental information) is random (i.e. non-trending), many studies have shown a marked tendency for the stock market to trend over time periods of weeks or longer. Various explanations for such large and apparently non-random price movements have been promulgated. For instance, some research has shown that changes in estimated risk, and the use of certain strategies, such as stop-loss limits and value at risk limits, theoretically could cause financial markets to overreact. But the best explanation seems to be that the distribution of stock market prices is non-Gaussian (in which case EMH, in any of its current forms, would not be strictly applicable).

Other research has shown that psychological factors may result in exaggerated (statistically anomalous) stock price movements (contrary to EMH which assumes such behaviors 'cancel out'). Psychological research has demonstrated that people are predisposed to 'seeing' patterns, and often will perceive a pattern in what is, in fact, just noise, e.g. seeing familiar shapes in clouds or ink blots. In the present context, this means that a succession of good news items about a company may lead investors to overreact positively, driving the price up. A period of good returns also boosts the investors' self-confidence, reducing their (psychological) risk threshold.

Another phenomenon—also from psychology—that works against an objective assessment is group thinking. As social animals, it is not easy to stick to an opinion that differs markedly from that of a majority of the group. An example with which one may be familiar is the reluctance to enter a restaurant that is empty; people generally prefer to have their opinion validated by those of others in the group.

In one paper the authors draw an analogy with gambling. In normal times the market behaves like a game of roulette; the probabilities are known and largely independent of the investment decisions of the different players. In times of market stress, however, the game becomes more like poker (herding behavior takes over). The players now must give heavy weight to the psychology of other investors and how they are likely to react psychologically.

Stock markets play an essential role in growing industries that ultimately affect the economy through transferring available funds from units that have excess funds (savings) to those who are suffering from funds deficit (borrowings) (Padhi and Naik, 2012). In other words, capital markets facilitate funds movement between the above-mentioned units. This process leads to the enhancement of available financial resources which in turn affects the economic growth positively.

Economic and financial theories argue that stock prices are affected by macroeconomic trends. Macroeconomic trends include such as changes in GDP, unemployment rates, national income, price indices, output, consumption, unemployment, inflation, saving, investment, energy, international trade, immigration, productivity, aging populations, innovations, international finance. increasing corporate profit, increasing profit margins, higher concentration of business, lower company income, less vigorous activity, less progress, lower investment rates, lower productivity growth, less employee share of corporate revenues, decreasing Worker to Beneficiary ratio (year 1960 5:1, year 2009 3:1, year 2030 2.2:1), increasing female to male ratio college graduates.

Irrational behavior
Sometimes, the market seems to react irrationally to economic or financial news, even if that news is likely to have no real effect on the fundamental value of securities itself. However, this market behaviour may be more apparent than real, since often such news was anticipated, and a counter reaction may occur if the news is better (or worse) than expected. Therefore, the stock market may be swayed in either direction by press releases, rumors, euphoria and mass panic.

Over the short-term, stocks and other securities can be battered or bought by any number of fast market-changing events, making the stock market behavior difficult to predict. Emotions can drive prices up and down, people are generally not as rational as they think, and the reasons for buying and selling are generally accepted.

Behaviorists argue that investors often behave irrationally when making investment decisions thereby incorrectly pricing securities, which causes market inefficiencies, which, in turn, are opportunities to make money. However, the whole notion of EMH is that these non-rational reactions to information cancel out, leaving the prices of stocks rationally determined.

Crashes

A stock market crash is often defined as a sharp dip in share prices of stocks listed on the stock exchanges. In parallel with various economic factors, a reason for stock market crashes is also due to panic and investing public's loss of confidence. Often, stock market crashes end speculative economic bubbles.

There have been famous stock market crashes that have ended in the loss of billions of dollars and wealth destruction on a massive scale. An increasing number of people are involved in the stock market, especially since the social security and retirement plans are being increasingly privatized and linked to stocks and bonds and other elements of the market. There have been a number of famous stock market crashes like the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the stock market crash of 1973–4, the Black Monday of 1987, the Dot-com bubble of 2000, and the Stock Market Crash of 2008.

1929
One of the most famous stock market crashes started October 24, 1929, on Black Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 50% during this stock market crash. It was the beginning of the Great Depression.

1987
Another famous crash took place on October 19, 1987 – Black Monday. The crash began in Hong Kong and quickly spread around the world.

By the end of October, stock markets in Hong Kong had fallen 45.5%, Australia 41.8%, Spain 31%, the United Kingdom 26.4%, the United States 22.68%, and Canada 22.5%. Black Monday itself was the largest one-day percentage decline in stock market history – the Dow Jones fell by 22.6% in a day. The names "Black Monday" and "Black Tuesday" are also used for October 28–29, 1929, which followed Terrible Thursday—the starting day of the stock market crash in 1929.

The crash in 1987 raised some puzzles – main news and events did not predict the catastrophe and visible reasons for the collapse were not identified. This event raised questions about many important assumptions of modern economics, namely, the theory of rational human conduct, the theory of market equilibrium and the efficient-market hypothesis. For some time after the crash, trading in stock exchanges worldwide was halted, since the exchange computers did not perform well owing to enormous quantity of trades being received at one time. This halt in trading allowed the Federal Reserve System and central banks of other countries to take measures to control the spreading of worldwide financial crisis. In the United States the SEC introduced several new measures of control into the stock market in an attempt to prevent a re-occurrence of the events of Black Monday.

2007-2009
This marked the beginning of the Great Recession. Starting in 2007 and lasting through 2009, financial markets experienced one of the sharpest declines in decades. It was more widespread than just the stock market as well. The housing market, lending market, and even global trade experienced unimaginable decline. Sub-prime lending led to the housing bubble bursting and was made famous by movies like The Big Short where those holding large mortgages were unwittingly falling prey to lenders. This saw banks and major financial institutions completely fail in many cases and took major government intervention to remedy during the period. From October 2007 to March 2009, the S&P 500 fell 57% and wouldn't recover to its 2007 levels until April 2013.

2020
The 2020 stock market crash was a major and sudden global stock market crash that began on 20 February 2020 and ended on 7 April. This market crash was due to the sudden outbreak of the global pandemic, COVID-19. The crash ended with a new deal that had a positive impact on the market.

Circuit breakers
Since the early 1990s, many of the largest exchanges have adopted electronic 'matching engines' to bring together buyers and sellers, replacing the open outcry system. Electronic trading now accounts for the majority of trading in many developed countries. Computer systems were upgraded in the stock exchanges to handle larger trading volumes in a more accurate and controlled manner. The SEC modified the margin requirements in an attempt to lower the volatility of common stocks, stock options and the futures market. The New York Stock Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange introduced the concept of a circuit breaker. The circuit breaker halts trading if the Dow declines a prescribed number of points for a prescribed amount of time. In February 2012, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) introduced single-stock circuit breakers.
 * New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) circuit breakers

Stock market index
The movements of the prices in global, regional or local markets are captured in price indices called stock market indices, of which there are many, e.g. the S&P, the FTSE, the Euronext indices and the NIFTY & SENSEX of India. Such indices are usually market capitalization weighted, with the weights reflecting the contribution of the stock to the index. The constituents of the index are reviewed frequently to include/exclude stocks in order to reflect the changing business environment.

Derivative instruments
Financial innovation has brought many new financial instruments whose pay-offs or values depend on the prices of stocks. Some examples are exchange-traded funds (ETFs), stock index and stock options, equity swaps, single-stock futures, and stock index futures. These last two may be traded on futures exchanges (which are distinct from stock exchanges—their history traces back to commodity futures exchanges), or traded over-the-counter. As all of these products are only derived from stocks, they are sometimes considered to be traded in a (hypothetical) derivatives market, rather than the (hypothetical) stock market.

Leveraged strategies
Stock that a trader does not actually own may be traded using short selling; margin buying may be used to purchase stock with borrowed funds; or, derivatives may be used to control large blocks of stocks for a much smaller amount of money than would be required by outright purchase or sales.

Short selling
In short selling, the trader borrows stock (usually from his brokerage which holds its clients shares or its own shares on account to lend to short sellers) then sells it on the market, betting that the price will fall. The trader eventually buys back the stock, making money if the price fell in the meantime and losing money if it rose. Exiting a short position by buying back the stock is called "covering". This strategy may also be used by unscrupulous traders in illiquid or thinly traded markets to artificially lower the price of a stock. Hence most markets either prevent short selling or place restrictions on when and how a short sale can occur. The practice of naked shorting is illegal in most (but not all) stock markets.

Margin buying
In margin buying, the trader borrows money (at interest) to buy a stock and hopes for it to rise. Most industrialized countries have regulations that require that if the borrowing is based on collateral from other stocks the trader owns outright, it can be a maximum of a certain percentage of those other stocks' value. In the United States, the margin requirements have been 50% for many years (that is, if you want to make a $1000 investment, you need to put up $500, and there is often a maintenance margin below the $500).

A margin call is made if the total value of the investor's account cannot support the loss of the trade. (Upon a decline in the value of the margined securities additional funds may be required to maintain the account's equity, and with or without notice the margined security or any others within the account may be sold by the brokerage to protect its loan position. The investor is responsible for any shortfall following such forced sales.)

Regulation of margin requirements (by the Federal Reserve) was implemented after the Crash of 1929. Before that, speculators typically only needed to put up as little as 10 percent (or even less) of the total investment represented by the stocks purchased. Other rules may include the prohibition of free-riding: putting in an order to buy stocks without paying initially (there is normally a three-day grace period for delivery of the stock), but then selling them (before the three-days are up) and using part of the proceeds to make the original payment (assuming that the value of the stocks has not declined in the interim).

Types of financial markets
Financial markets can be divided into different subtypes:

For the assets transferred

 * Money market : It is traded with money or financial assets with short-term maturity and high liquidity, generally assets with a term of less than one year.
 * Capital market : Financial assets with medium and long-term maturity are traded, which are basic for carrying out certain investment processes.

Depending on its structure

 * Organized market
 * Non-organized markets denominated in English (" Over The Counter ").

According to the negotiation phase of financial assets

 * Primary market : Financial assets are created. In this market, assets are transmitted directly by their issuer.
 * Secondary market : Only existing financial assets are exchanged, which were issued at a previous time. This market allows holders of financial assets to sell instruments that were already issued in the primary market (or that had already been transmitted in the secondary market) and that are in their possession, or to buy other financial assets.

According to the geographical perspective

 * National markets. The currency in which the financial assets are denominated and the residence of those involved is national.
 * International markets. The markets situated outside a country's geographical area.

According to the type of asset traded

 * Traditional market. In which financial assets such as demand deposits, stocks or bonds are traded.
 * Alternative market. In which alternative financial assets are traded such as portfolio investments, promissory notes, factoring, real estate (e.g. through fiduciary rights), in private equity funds, venture capital funds, hedge funds, investment projects (e.g. infrastructure, cinema, etc.) among many others.

Other markets

 * Commodity markets, which allow the trading of commodities
 * Derivatives markets, which provide instruments for managing financial risk
 * Forward markets, which provide standardized forward contracts to trade products at a future date
 * Insurance markets, which allows the redistribution of varied risks
 * Foreign exchange market, which allows the exchange of foreign currencies

Investment strategies
Many strategies can be classified as either fundamental analysis or technical analysis. Fundamental analysis refers to analyzing companies by their financial statements found in SEC filings, business trends, and general economic conditions. Technical analysis studies price actions in markets through the use of charts and quantitative techniques to attempt to forecast price trends based on historical performance, regardless of the company's financial prospects. One example of a technical strategy is the Trend following method, used by John W. Henry and Ed Seykota, which uses price patterns and is also rooted in risk management and diversification.

Additionally, many choose to invest via passive index funds. In this method, one holds a portfolio of the entire stock market or some segment of the stock market (such as the S&P 500 Index or Wilshire 5000). The principal aim of this strategy is to maximize diversification, minimize taxes from realizing gains, and ride the general trend of the stock market to rise.

Responsible investment emphasizes and requires a long-term horizon on the basis of fundamental analysis only, avoiding hazards in the expected return of the investment. Socially responsible investing is another investment preference.

Taxation
Taxation is a consideration of all investment strategies; profit from owning stocks, including dividends received, is subject to different tax rates depending on the type of security and the holding period. Most profit from stock investing is taxed via a capital gains tax. In many countries, the corporations pay taxes to the government and the shareholders once again pay taxes when they profit from owning the stock, known as "double taxation".

Stock market scams
The Indian stock exchanges, Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India, have been rocked by several high-profile corruption scandals. At times, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has barred various individuals and entities from trading on the exchanges for stock manipulation, especially in illiquid small-cap and penny stocks.

title: Stock market


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Allegany County, New York

Allegany County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 46,456. Its county seat is Belmont. Its name derives from a Lenape word, applied by European-American settlers of Western New York State to a trail that followed the Allegheny River; they also named the county after this. The county is part of the Western New York region of the state.

The county is bisected by the Genesee River, flowing north to its mouth on Lake Ontario. During the mid-nineteenth century, the Genesee Valley Canal was built to link southern markets to the Great Lakes and Mohawk River. The county was also served by railroads, which soon superseded the canals in their capacity for carrying freight. Part of the Oil Springs Reservation, controlled by the Seneca Nation, is located in the county.

History
For centuries, Allegany County was the territory of the Seneca people, at the westernmost nation of the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee, a confederacy of Iroquoian languages-speaking peoples. European-American permanent settlement did not take place until after the American Revolutionary War and the forced cession by the Seneca of most of their lands in western New York. New York State sold off the lands cheaply to attract new European-American settlers and agricultural development.

Allegany County was created by the state legislature on April 7, 1806, when Genesee County, New York, was partitioned to set aside some 1570 sqmi to the new county. The first County Seat was established at Angelica, New York, where it remained for half a century. It was later moved to Belmont, a village located along the Genesee River. On March 11, 1808, the borders were adjusted so that 230 sqmi of Steuben County passed to Allegany County, and 600 mi of Allegany County passed to Genesee County. This established the current border between Genesee and Steuben counties, and reduced the size of Allegany County to 1200 sqmi. On June 12, 1812, the legislature authorized the attachment of Cattaraugus County, New York, to Allegany County for administration reasons, but for practical reasons this action did not take place at that time. However, on April 13, 1814, the eastern half of Cattaraugus County was so attached and administered from Belmont. This attachment was ended on March 28, 1817. With continued settlement through the mid-nineteenth century, the legislature periodically adjusted county borders as new counties were organized in western New York. On April 1, 1846, Allegany County lost 120 sqmi to Wyoming County, reducing the size of Allegany County to 1140 sqmi, and establishing the current border between Allegany and Wyoming counties. On May 11, 1846, Allegany County lost 50 sqmi to Livingston County, reducing the total to 1090 sqmi, and establishing the western portion of the current border with Livingston County. On March 23, 1857, Allegany County lost another 40 sqmi to Livingston County, passing the Ossian, New York, area to Livingston County, and establishing the current border between them.

Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1034 sqmi, of which 1029 sqmi is land and 5.1 sqmi (0.5%) is water.

Allegany County is in the southwestern part of New York State, along the Pennsylvania border. Allegany County does not lie along the Allegheny River, as its name would suggest. The highest point in the county is Alma Hill, with an elevation of 2,548 ft above sea level. This is the highest point in the state west of the Catskill Mountains. The highest point of Interstate 86 is located in the town of West Almond with an elevation of 2,110 feet. This is also believed to be the highest point of any interstate in the New York. The county is unique from a watershed perspective as it is providing water to three major watersheds of North America: The eastern part near Alfred has Canacadea Creek that goes into the Canisteo River, Susquehanna River and eventually to Chesapeake Bay.

The Genesee River bisects the county from south to north, flowing north out of the County through Letchworth State Park with its three waterfalls on to Rochester over three more waterfalls to its mouth on Lake Ontario and then on to the St. Lawrence River and Atlantic Ocean. The southwestern part of the County flows into the Allegheny River that flows into the Ohio and then to the Mississippi River basin to the Gulf of Mexico.

In June 1972 the remnants of Hurricane Agnes stalled over the area, dropping more than 20 in of rain. Flooding took place in the valley communities of Wellsville, Belmont, Belfast, and others in the county.

Long a necessary transportation waterway for the Seneca and other Native Americans, and successive European-American settlers, since the late 20th century, the Genesee River has been extremely popular with canoeists. The river is also favored by fishermen as it abounds in smallmouth bass, trout and panfish.

Adjacent counties

 * Livingston County – northeast
 * Steuben County – east
 * Potter County, Pennsylvania – southeast
 * McKean County, Pennsylvania – southwest
 * Cattaraugus County – west
 * Wyoming County – northwest

Major highways

 * I-86.svg Interstate 86 (Southern Tier Expressway)
 * NY-17.svg New York State Route 17 (Southern Tier Expressway)
 * NY-19.svg New York State Route 19
 * NY-21.svg New York State Route 21
 * NY-305.svg New York State Route 305
 * NY-417.svg New York State Route 417

Demographics
As of the census of 2020, there were 46,456 people. Based on earlier (2000) censuses, there were 18,009 households, and 12,192 families residing in the county. The population density was 48 /mi2. There were 24,505 housing units at an average density of 24 /mi2. The racial makeup of the county was 97.03% White, 0.72% Black or African American, 0.28% Native American, 0.72% Asian, 0.37% from other races, and 0.88% from two or more races. 0.91% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 22.3% identified as being of German, 16.6% English, 13.8% Irish, 11.9% American and 7.0% Italian ancestry according to Census 2000. 96.5% spoke English and 1.3% Spanish as their first language.

There were 18,009 households, out of which 31.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.20% were married couples living together, 9.00% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.30% were non-families. 26.00% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.30% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.53 and the average family size was 3.04.

In the county, the population was spread out, with 24.40% under the age of 18, 15.50% from 18 to 24, 23.90% from 25 to 44, 22.20% from 45 to 64, and 14.00% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 99.80 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.10 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $32,106, and the median income for a family was $38,580. Males had a median income of $30,401 versus $21,466 for females. The per capita income for the county was $14,975. About 10.50% of families and 15.50% of the population were below the poverty line, including 19.20% of those under age 18 and 7.50% of those age 65 or over.

Government and politics

 * }

Allegany County is considered to be a strongly Republican county. In 2004, it voted for George W. Bush over John Kerry 63% to 34%, and in 2008 it voted for John McCain over Barack Obama 59% to 39%. It has been reported that in the last 170 years, the only Democratic candidates to win were Franklin Pierce in 1852 and Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Even in 1964, when Republican nominee Barry Goldwater lost the county by 14 points, he still managed to carry the towns of Centerville, Caneadea, Granger, Hume, and Rushford. In 2006, neither Democrat Eliot Spitzer nor Hillary Clinton carried it in their otherwise landslide elections for governor and US senator, respectively. Eliot Spitzer lost 48.98% to John Faso's 49.03%. Hillary Clinton lost the county by 3 points. In 2010, Andrew Cuomo lost by a wide margin while Senator Chuck Schumer carried it by a narrow margin of 49.46% to Jay Townsend's 48.86% a margin of 78 votes. It was one of only two counties that Senator Kirsten Gillibrand lost to Wendy Long in 2012. In the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, Republican Donald Trump received over two-thirds, the first for a Republican since 1988.

Allegany County is part of New York's 23rd congressional district. In the New York State Senate, it is part of the 57th district and is represented by Republican George M. Borrello, and the 58th district is represented by Thomas F. O'Mara. In the New York State Assembly, the county is in the 148th Assembly District represented by Republican Joseph Giglio.

The Allegany Board of Legislators consists of 15 members from five three-member districts. , the Board consists of 15 Republicans. The current chairman is W. Brooke Harris. The County Administrator is Carissa M. Knapp.

Allegany County is divided into 29 towns and 10 villages. There are no cities as designated by New York State Law. The border between Allegany and Steuben County runs through the Village of Almond. The towns and villages by County Legislative District are as follows:

District I: Angelica, Belfast, Caneadea, Centerville, Granger, Hume, Rushford, and the village of Angelica.

District II: Amity, Clarksville, Cuba, Friendship, New Hudson, Ward, and the villages of Belmont and Cuba.

District III: Alma, Bolivar, Genesee, Independence, Scio, Willing, Wirt, and the villages of Bolivar and Richburg.

District IV: Andover, Wellsville, and the villages of Andover and Wellsville.

District V: Alfred, Allen, Almond, Birdsall, Burns, Grove, West Almond, and the villages of Alfred, Almond, and Canaseraga.

The Oil Springs Reservation is an Indian reservation of the Seneca Nation shared with Cattaraugus County having a total area of only 1 sqmi. This is the site of the famed spring described by the Franciscan Missionary Joseph DeLa Roch D'Allion in 1627, the first recorded mention of oil on the North American Continent. In 1927, the New York State Oil Producers Association sponsored the dedication of a monument at the site describing the history of the oil industry in North America. There is a small park with parking and a footbridge to the monument. The remainder of the reservation is mostly utilized for cottages on Cuba Lake, Seneca-run gas stations, and woodlands.

Education
Higher education facilities include Alfred University, the New York State College of Ceramics (a member of SUNY), Alfred State College, and Houghton University. The county has twelve school districts with their buildings in the county and parts of an additional six districts. Districts include: Alfred-Almond Central, Canaseraga Central that are part of the Greater Southern Tier BOCES with a facility in Hornell. Districts in association with the Cattaraugus-Allegany BOCES include: Andover Central, Whitesville Central, Wellsville Central, Bolivar-Richburg Central, Scio Central, Genesee Valley Central, Belfast Central, Fillmore Central, Friendship Central, and Cuba-Rushford Central. Districts with their buildings outside the County include Portville, Pioneer, Letchworth, and Keshequa. There are two private schools: Immaculate Conception in Wellsville and Houghton Academy in Houghton. There are also two Montessori Schools in Wellsville and Alfred.

Communities
Allegany County comprises 29 towns and 10 villages. † - County seat

‡ - Not wholly in this county

Towns

 * Alfred
 * Allen
 * Alma
 * Almond
 * Amity
 * Andover
 * Angelica
 * Belfast
 * Birdsall
 * Bolivar
 * Burns
 * Caneadea
 * Centerville
 * Clarksville
 * Cuba
 * Friendship
 * Genesee
 * Granger
 * Grove
 * Hume
 * Independence
 * New Hudson
 * Rushford
 * Scio
 * Ward
 * Wellsville
 * West Almond
 * Willing
 * Wirt

Hamlets

 * Black Creek
 * McGrawville
 * Petrolia

Indian reservations

 * Oil Springs Reservation (part)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Allegany County, New York


text:
Robber baron (feudalism)

A robber baron or robber knight (Raubritter) was an unscrupulous feudal landowner who, protected by his fief's legal status, imposed high taxes and tolls out of keeping with the norm without authorization by some higher authority. Some resorted to actual banditry. The German term for robber barons, Raubritter (robber knights), was coined by Friedrich Bottschalk in 1810.

Some robber barons violated the custom under which tolls were collected on the Rhine either by charging higher tolls than the standard or by operating without authority from the Holy Roman Emperor altogether. During the period in the history of the Holy Roman Empire known as the Great Interregnum (1250–1273), the number of such tolling stations exploded in the absence of Imperial authority.

Medieval robber barons most often imposed high or unauthorized tolls on rivers or roads passing through their territory. Some robbed merchants, land travelers, and river traffic—seizing money, cargoes, even entire ships—or engaged in kidnapping for ransom.

Early development
Tolls were collected from ships sailing on the River Rhine in Europe for one thousand years from around 800 AD to 1800 AD. During this time, various feudal lords (among them archbishops who held fiefs from the Holy Roman Emperor) collected tolls from passing cargo ships to bolster their finances. Only the Holy Roman Emperor could authorise the collection of such tolls. Allowing the nobility and Church to collect tolls from the busy traffic on the Rhine seems to have been an attractive alternative to other means of taxation and funding of government functions.

Iron chains were often stretched across the river to prevent passage without paying the toll, and strategic towers were built to facilitate this.

The Holy Roman Emperor and the various noblemen and archbishops who were authorised to levy tolls seem to have worked out an informal way of regulating this process. Among the decisions involved in managing the collection of tolls on the Rhine were how many toll stations to have, where they should be built, how high the tolls should be, and the advantages/disadvantages. While this decision process was made no less complex by being informal, common factors included the local power structure (archbishops and nobles being the most likely recipients of a charter to collect tolls), space between toll stations (authorized toll stations seem to have been at least five kilometres apart), and ability to be defended from attack (some castles through which tolls were collected were tactically useful until the French invaded in 1689 and levelled them). Tolls were standardized either in terms of an amount of silver coin allowed to be charged or an "in-kind" toll of cargo from the ship.

The men who came to be known as robber barons or robber knights (Raubritter) violated the structure under which tolls were collected on the Rhine either by charging higher tolls than the standard or by operating without authority from the Holy Roman Emperor altogether.

Writers of the period referred to these practices as "unjust tolls," and not only did the robber barons thereby violate the prerogatives of the Holy Roman Emperor, they also went outside of the society's behavioural norms, since merchants were bound both by law and religious custom to charge a "just price" for their wares.

Great Interregnum
During the period in the history of the Holy Roman Empire known as the Great Interregnum (1250–1273), when there was no Emperor, the number of tolling stations exploded in the absence of imperial authority. In addition, robber barons began to earn their opprobrium by robbing ships of their cargoes, stealing entire ships, and even kidnapping.

In response to this organized, military lawlessness, the "Rheinischer Bund," or Rhine League was formed by 100 Cities, and from several princes and prince-prelates (lords of the Church), all of whom held large stakes in the restoration of law and order to the Rhine.

Officially launched in 1254, the Rhine League wasted no time putting robber barons out of business by the simple expedient of taking and destroying their castles. In the next three years, four robber barons were targeted and between ten and twelve robber castles destroyed or inactivated.

The Rhine League was not only successful in suppressing illicit collection of tolls and river robbery, they also took action against other state aggression. For example, they are documented as having intervened to rescue a victim of abduction by the Baron of Rietberg.

The procedure pioneered by the Rhine League for dealing with robber barons – to besiege, capture and destroy their castles – survived long after the League self-destructed from political strife over the election of a new Emperor and military reversals against unusually strong robber barons.

When the Interregnum ended, the new king Rudolf of Habsburg applied the lessons learned by the Rhine League to the destruction of the highway robbers at Sooneck, torching their castles and hanging them. While robber barony never entirely ceased, especially during the Hundred Years' War, the excesses of their heyday during the Interregnum never recurred.

England
The reign of King Stephen of England (1135–1154) was a long period of civil unrest commonly known as "The Anarchy". In the absence of strong central kingship, the nobility of England were a law unto themselves, as characterised in this excerpt from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:

"When the traitors saw that Stephen was a mild good humoured man who inflicted no punishment, then they committed all manner of horrible crimes. They had done him homage and sworn oaths of fealty to him, but not one of their oaths was kept. They were all forsworn and their oaths broken. For every great man built him castles and held them against the king; they sorely burdened the unhappy people of the country with forced labour on the castles; and when the castles were built they filled them with devils and wicked men. By night and by day they seized those they believed to have any wealth, whether they were men or women; and in order to get their gold or silver, they put them into prison and tortured them with unspeakable tortures, for never were martyrs tortured as they were. They hung them up by the feet and smoked them with foul smoke. They strung them up by the thumbs, or by the head, and hung coats of mail on their feet. They tied knotted cords round their heads and twisted it until it entered the brain. They put them in dungeons wherein were adders and snakes and toads and so destroyed them. Many thousands they starved to death."

Literature references
Michael Heller refers to the original robber barons to illustrate his tragedy of the anticommons in his 2008 book. The tragedy of the anticommons is a type of coordination breakdown, in which a single resource has numerous rightsholders who prevent others from using it, frustrating what would be a socially desirable outcome.

In Ken Follet's historical novel The Pillars of the Earth, taking place in England during The Anarchy, the main villain is a vicious and ruthless earl who behaves as described in the quote above.

title: Robber baron (feudalism)


text:
Broome County, New York

Broome County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 United States census, the county had a population of 198,683. Its county seat is Binghamton. The county was named for John Broome, the state's lieutenant governor when Broome County was created. The county is part of the Southern Tier region of the state.

The county is part of the Binghamton, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is home to Binghamton University, one of four university centers in the State University of New York (SUNY) system.

History
When counties were established in the Province of New York in 1683, the present Broome County was part of the enormous Albany County, including the northern part of New York State as well as all of the present State of Vermont and, in theory, extending westward to the Pacific Ocean. This county was reduced in size on July 3, 1766, by the creation of Cumberland County, and further on March 16, 1770, by the creation of Gloucester County, both containing territory now in Vermont.

On March 12, 1772, what was left of Albany County was split into three parts, one remaining under the name Albany County. One of the other pieces, Tryon County, contained the western portion (and thus, since no western boundary was specified, theoretically still extended west to the Pacific). The eastern boundary of Tryon County was approximately five miles west of the present city of Schenectady, and the county included the western part of the Adirondack Mountains and the area west of the West Branch of the Delaware River. The area then designated as Tryon County now is organized as 37 counties of New York State. The county was named for William Tryon, colonial governor of New York.

In the years prior to 1776, most of the Loyalists in Tryon County fled to Canada. In 1784, following the peace treaty that ended the American Revolutionary War, the name of Tryon County was changed to Montgomery County, for General Richard Montgomery, who had captured several places in Canada and died attempting to capture the city of Quebec, thus replacing the name of the hated British governor.

In 1789, Montgomery County was reduced in size by the splitting off of Ontario County. The actual area split off from Montgomery County was much larger than the present county, also including the present Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Orleans, Steuben, Wyoming, Yates, and part of Schuyler and Wayne Counties.

In 1791, Tioga County split off from Montgomery County, along with Herkimer and Otsego Counties. Tioga County was at this time much larger than the present county and included the present Broome and Chemung Counties and parts of Chenango and Schuyler Counties.

In 1798, Tioga County was reduced in size by the splitting off of Chemung County (which also included part of the present Schuyler County) and by the combination of a portion with a portion of Herkimer County to create Chenango County.

In 1806, the present-day Broome County was split off from Tioga County.

Geography
Broome County lies on the southern line of New York. Its southern border abuts the northern boundary of the state of Pennsylvania. The Susquehanna River flows southward through the eastern part of the county, enters Susquehanna County in Pennsylvania, then re-enters Broome and flows northwestward to meet the Chenango River at Binghamton. The combined flow moves west-southwestward into Tioga County to the west. The West Branch Delaware River flows southward along the lower portion of the county's east border, delineating that portion of the border between Broome and Delaware counties.

The county's western portion is hilly, with wide valleys that accommodate Binghamton and its suburbs. In the northern portion, Interstate 81 traverses a wide glacial valley. The eastern part of the county is much more rugged, as the land rises to the Catskill Mountains. The terrain generally slopes to the west. The county's highest point is in the southeast of the county, a U.S. National Geodetic Survey benchmark known as Slawson atop an unnamed hill in the Town of Sanford. It is approximately 2,087 ft above sea level. An area due east on the Delaware County line in Oquaga Creek State Park also lies within the same elevation contour line. The lowest point is 864 ft above sea level, along the Susquehanna River, at the Pennsylvania state line.

The county has a total area of 716 sqmi, of which 706 sqmi is land and 9.7 sqmi (1.4%) is water.

Adjacent counties

 * Chenango County – northeast
 * Delaware County – east
 * Wayne County, Pennsylvania – southeast
 * Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania – south
 * Tioga County – west
 * Cortland County – northwest

Protected areas
Source:

 * Aqua-Terra Wilderness Area
 * Beaver Flow State Forest (part)
 * Beaver Pond State Forest
 * Cascade Valley State Forest
 * Cat Hollow State Forest
 * Chenango Valley State Park
 * Dorchester County Park
 * Greenwood County Park (part)
 * Hawkins Pond State Forest
 * Marsh Pond State Forest
 * Nathaniel Cole County Park
 * Oquaga Creek State Park (part)
 * Skyline Drive State Forest
 * Triangle State Forest
 * Whitney Point Multiple Use Area (part)
 * Whittacker Swamp State Forest

Lakes
Source:

 * Agwaterra Pond
 * Blueberry Lake
 * Chenango Lake
 * Deer Lake
 * Fly Pond
 * Hawkins Pond
 * Hust Pond
 * Laurel Lake
 * Lily Lake
 * Nanticoke Lake
 * Oquaga Lake
 * Otselic River
 * Potato Creek
 * Sky Lake
 * Summit Lake

Major highways

 * / Quickway
 * / Quickway

2020 census
Note: The US census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race.

2000 census
As of the 2000 United States census, there were 200,536 people, 80,749 households, and 50,225 families in the county. The population density was 284 /mi2. There were 88,817 housing units at an average density of 125.8 /mi2. The racial makeup of the county was 91.33% white, 3.28% black or African American, .19% Native American, 2.79% Asian, .03% Pacific Islander, .79% from other races, and 1.59% from two or more races. 1.99% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 16.1% were of Irish, 13.3% Italian, 12.3% German, 11.6% English, 6.4% American and 5.7% Polish ancestry according to the census. 91.4% spoke English, 2.0% Spanish and 1.1% Italian as their first language.

There were 80,749 households, out of which 28.20% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.60% were married couples living together, 10.80% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.80% were non-families. 31.00% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.40% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.37 and the average family size was 2.97.

The county population contained 23.00% under the age of 18, 11.00% from 18 to 24, 26.80% from 25 to 44, 22.80% from 45 to 64, and 16.40% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 93.20 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.90 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $35,347, and the median income for a family was $45,422. Males had a median income of $34,426 versus $24,542 for females. The per capita income for the county was $19,168. About 8.80% of families and 12.80% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.90% of those under age 18 and 7.20% of those age 65 or over.

Climate
Broome has a warm-summer humid continental climate (Dfb) and the hardiness zone is mainly 5b.

Government and politics
For the past few decades, Broome County has been a swing county. Since 1964 the county has selected Democratic and Republican party candidates at approximately the same rate in national elections (as of 2016). The more recent elections had favored the Democratic candidate, until Donald Trump carried the county in 2016, the first Republican to win the county since Ronald Reagan in 1984. Joe Biden carried Broome with 50.5% of the vote in 2020. In Broome County, Democratic strength comes primarily from Binghamton and its suburbs, such as Johnson City and Endicott, while Republicans dominate the outer, rural parts of the county.

 * }

Broome County's offices are housed in the Edwin L. Crawford County Office Building of Government Plaza located at 60 Hawley Street in Downtown Binghamton.

Legislature
The Broome County Legislature consists of 15 members. The 15 legislature members are elected from individual districts. As of 2024, there are 9 Republicans and 6 Democrats.

Law enforcement
In Broome County, law enforcement services are provided by local, county, state, and federal law enforcement professionals.

At the federal level:

 * United States Marshals Service (located in the federal courthouse in downtown Binghamton)
 * Customs and Border Protection (Greater Binghamton Airport located in Johnson City)
 * Transportation Security Administration (Greater Binghamton Airport located in Johnson City)
 * Federal Protective Service (federal & GSA properties located in Downtown Binghamton)

At the state level:

 * New York State Police
 * New York State Court Officers
 * New York State Park Police
 * New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Police
 * New York State University Police (Binghamton University)
 * SUNY Broome Office of Public Safety
 * Peace officers

At the county level:

 * Broome County office of sheriff
 * Broome County district attorney
 * Criminal investigators
 * School resource officers contracted through the DA's office
 * Broome County Government Security Division (NYS peace officers with quasi-law enforcement status, including powers of arrest and carrying firearms. They are located at county property, as well as county events.)

At the local level:

 * Binghamton Police Department
 * Endicott Police Department
 * Johnson City Police Department
 * Vestal Police Department
 * Port Dickinson Police Department

Additionally, the 536-bed Broome County Jail is operated by the Broome County sheriff's office.

The Broome County Law Enforcement Academy facilitates the New York State-mandated basic course for police officers, which includes over 700 hours of instruction. All municipal police officers and deputy sheriffs within Broome County attend this academy. In addition, oftentimes officers from outside Greater Binghamton attend the academy. The academy frequently hosts officers from the Elmira-Corning area, Syracuse metropolitan area, and other regions within New York State.

Education
The primary institutes of higher education in Broome County include:
 * Binghamton University (enrollment 18,500)
 * Broome Community College (BCC or SUNY Broome)
 * Davis College – a private Christian college founded in Johnson City, though the campus is now defunct and sits empty.

Larger settlements
† – County seat

‡ – Not wholly in this county

Towns

 * Barker
 * Binghamton
 * Chenango
 * Colesville
 * Conklin
 * Dickinson
 * Fenton
 * Kirkwood
 * Lisle
 * Maine
 * Nanticoke
 * Sanford
 * Triangle
 * Union
 * Vestal
 * Windsor

Hamlets

 * Castle Creek
 * Center Lisle
 * Chenango Bridge
 * Chenango Forks
 * Glen Castle
 * Hawleyton
 * Hillcrest
 * Hydeville
 * Itaska
 * Kattelville
 * Newmans Corners
 * Nimmonsburg
 * North Fenton
 * Nineveh
 * Pleasant Hill
 * Port Crane
 * Quinneville
 * Summit Hill
 * West Chenango
 * Wyman Corner

Census-designated places

 * Binghamton University
 * Chenango Bridge
 * Endwell
 * Glen Aubrey

Notable people

 * John Allen, dentist and inventor of new denture method
 * Ira Cook (1821–1902), Iowa land surveyor and businessman, born in Broome County
 * Daniel S. Dickinson (1800–1866), US Senator, lived in Broome County
 * John Ducey (b. 1969), actor, born in Broome County
 * Barzillai Gray (1824–1918), judge, born in Broome County
 * Robert Harpur (1731–1825), colonial teacher, politician, pioneer, for whom Harpur College (now Binghamton University) was named, settled at Harpursville
 * Johnny Hart (1931–2007), cartoonist, creator of B.C. and co-creator of The Wizard of Id, born in Broome County
 * George F. Johnson (1857–1948), industrialist, philanthropist, co-founder of Endicott-Johnson Co., lived in Broome County
 * Willis Sharpe Kilmer (1867–1940), industrialist and entrepreneur,  lived in Broome County
 * Rebecca Krohn, ballet dancer, born in Broome County
 * Edwin A. Link (1904–1981), inventor, raised in Broome County
 * David Ross Locke (1833–1888), Civil War journalist, born in Broome County
 * Ron Luciano (1937–1995), baseball umpire, author, born in Broome County
 * Billy Martin (1928–1989), baseball player, manager, retired to Broome County
 * Leonard Melfi (1932–2001), author, playwright, born in Broome County
 * William L. Mercereau (1866–1957), businessman, superintendent of carferries, born in Broome County
 * Mary Blair Moody (1837–1919), physician, anatomist, born in Broome County
 * Hidy Ochiai (b. 1939), karate and judo grand master, author, actor, resides in Broome County
 * Camille Paglia (b. 1947), philosopher, author, born in Broome County
 * Alice Freeman Palmer (1855–1902), educator, born in Broome County
 * Amy Sedaris (b. 1961), actress, author, playwright, born in Broome County
 * David Sedaris (b. 1956), comedian, essayist, playwright, born in Broome County
 * Rod Serling (1924–1975), screenwriter, playwright, raised in Broome County
 * Jack Sharkey (1902–1994), born Joseph Paul Cukoschay, world heavyweight boxing champion, 1931–33, born in Broome County

title: Broome County, New York


text:
Cattaraugus County, New York

Cattaraugus County (locally known as Catt County) is a county in Western New York, with one side bordering Pennsylvania. As of the United States 2020 census, the population was 77,042. The county seat is Little Valley. The county was created in 1808 and later organized in 1817. The county is part of the Western New York region of the state.

Cattaraugus County comprises the Olean, NY Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Olean, NY Combined Statistical Area. Within its boundaries are the Allegany Indian Reservation of the Seneca Nation of New York, and the Allegany State Park. The Allegheny River runs through the county.

History
In ancient times, the largely unsettled territory was the traditional homeland of the now-extinct Wenrohronon Indians. It later became the territory of the Seneca people, one of the five Nations of the Haudenosaunee.

During the colonial era, it was claimed by at least three Territories of the United States: New York Colony, Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the Province of Pennsylvania, each of which extended their colonial claims to the west until after the Revolutionary War.

When counties were established in the Province of New York in 1683, the territory of Cattaraugus County was included within Albany County. This was an enormous county, including the northern part of New York as well as all of the modern-day state of Vermont and, in theory, extending westward to the Pacific Ocean. As additional areas were settled, the county was reduced on July 3, 1766, by the creation of Cumberland County, and on March 16, 1770, by the creation of Gloucester County, both containing territory now in Vermont.

On March 12, 1772, what was left of Albany County was split into three parts, one remaining under the name Albany County. One of the other pieces, Tryon County, contained the western portion (and thus, since no western boundary was specified, theoretically still extended west to the Pacific). The eastern boundary of Tryon County was approximately five miles west of the present city of Schenectady. The county included the western part of the Adirondack Mountains and the area west of the West Branch of the Delaware River. The area then designated as Tryon County is represented in the 21st century by 37 counties of New York. The county was named for William Tryon, colonial governor of New York.

In the years before 1776, most of the Loyalists in Tryon County fled across the Niagara Frontier into modern day Ontario, Canada. In 1784, following the peace treaty that ended the Revolutionary War (and a treaty with Massachusetts that finally settled who owned Western New York), the name of Tryon County was changed to Montgomery County in honor of the general, Richard Montgomery, who had captured several places in Canada and died attempting to capture the city of Quebec. This replaced the name of the hated British governor.

In practice, however, these counties did not cover modern Cattaraugus County or Western New York. Most of that area lay within the Indian Reserve established in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix by the British; it was intended to be reserved for Native Americans and was ruled off-limits to European settlement.

The newly independent United States sought to extinguish Native reserves after the British ceded their territory east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes to the United States. This included Iroquois territory in New York; the four nations that had been allies of the British mostly relocated to Ontario, Canada where the Crown gave them land grants in some compensation for losses. The Treaty of Canandaigua, in 1794, extinguished what was left of native title, with the exception of several reservations, three of which were at least partially located in what is now Cattaraugus County.

Ontario County was split from Montgomery County in 1789 as a result of the establishment of the Morris Reserve. In turn, Genesee County was split from Ontario County in 1802 as a result of the Holland Purchase. This period was the beginning of more significant European-American settlement of this western territory. Shortly afterward, Genesee County was reduced in 1806 by the creation of Allegany County.

Cattaraugus County was formed in 1808, split off from Genesee County. At first there was no county government due to the sparse population. From 1812 to 1814, Cattaraugus County was incorporated in Allegany County; from 1814 to 1817, records of the county were divided between Belmont (Allegany County) and Buffalo (then in Niagara County).

The name "Cattaraugus" derives from a Seneca word for "bad smelling banks," in reference to the odor of natural gas leaking from rock seams. In 1817, a county government was established for Cattaraugus County in the southwestern corner of the town of Hebe, now Ellicottville.

Numerous towns in the county are named after agents of the Holland Land Company, including Ellicottville (Joseph Ellicott), Franklinville (William Temple Franklin, a speculator and grandson of Benjamin Franklin), and Otto and East Otto (Jacob Otto).

The first settlement in the county was in Olean. After 1860, in response to the construction of a railroad (where the Pat McGee Trail is now), the county seat was moved to Little Valley.

The Allegany Indian Reservation is within the county boundaries and is one of two controlled by the federally recognized Seneca Nation of New York in the western part of the state; the Seneca's other territories, Cattaraugus Reservation and Oil Springs Reservation, are both partially within county boundaries. South of Salamanca, New York, a small city located within the reservation, is Allegany State Park, which is contiguous with the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania.

Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1322 sqmi, of which 1308 sqmi is land and 14 sqmi (1.1%) is water.

Cattaraugus County is in the southwestern part of the state, immediately north of the Pennsylvania border, bordering the counties of McKean County, Pennsylvania and Warren County, Pennsylvania. The southern part of Cattaraugus County is the only area of western New York that was not covered by the last ice age glaciation. It is noticeably more rugged than neighboring areas that had peaks rounded and valleys filled by the glacier. The entire area is a dissected plateau of Pennsylvanian and Mississippian age, but appears mountainous to the casual observer. It is this string of mountain-like peaks that gives the county its promotional name, the Enchanted Mountains.

The plateau is an extension of the Allegany Plateau from nearby Pennsylvania. Southern Cattaraugus County is part of the same oil field, and petroleum was formerly a resource of the area. It is now mostly played out, but natural gas continues to be extracted.

A continental divide between the Mississippi River and Great Lakes watersheds runs through Cattaraugus County.

The northern border of the county is formed by Cattaraugus Creek and the Allegheny River flows through the county.

Mountains

 * Mount Tuscarora in Coldspring (formerly Elko)
 * Mount Three Sisters, Mount Seneca, Mount Cayuga, Mount Onondaga, Mount Oneida, Mount Mohawk, and Blacksnake Mountain in Red House
 * Mount Irvine in Carrollton
 * McCarty Hill in Great Valley
 * Hartzfelt Mountain and Mount Hermanns in Olean

Lakes

 * Allegheny Reservoir
 * Cuba Lake
 * Lime Lake
 * Quaker Lake
 * Red House Lake

Rivers and streams

 * Allegheny River
 * Ischua Creek
 * Tunungwant Creek
 * Bailley Brook
 * Leonard Run
 * Limestone Run
 * Harrisburg Run
 * Great Valley Creek
 * Little Valley Creek
 * Red House Brook
 * Conewango Creek
 * Cattaraugus Creek
 * Cattaraugus Creek South Branch

Adjacent counties

 * Erie County - north
 * Wyoming County - northeast
 * Allegany County - east
 * McKean County, Pennsylvania - southeast
 * Warren County, Pennsylvania - southwest
 * Chautauqua County - west

Major highways

 * [[Image:US 62.svg|20px]] U.S. Route 62
 * [[Image:US 219.svg|22px]] U.S. Route 219
 * [[Image:NY-16.svg|20px]] New York State Route 16
 * [[Image:NY-98.svg|20px]] New York State Route 98
 * [[Image:NY-240.svg|22px]] New York State Route 240
 * [[Image:NY-242.svg|22px]] New York State Route 242
 * [[Image:NY-353.svg|22px]] New York State Route 353
 * [[Image:NY-417.svg|22px]] New York State Route 417
 * [[Image:NY-417.svg|22px]] New York State Route 417

Airports
Great Valley Airport is located in Cattaraugus County, one nautical mile (1.85 km) southeast of the central business district of Great Valley.

Cattaraugus County-Olean Airport is located outside of Olean located in the Town of Ischua.

Bus service
Intercity bus service is provided through Coach USA, which runs through the county on its twice-daily Jamestown to Olean route (with connections to Buffalo and New York City). Trailways offers a once-daily north-to-south run between Buffalo and points south in Pennsylvania.

The county does not have a unified public transit system. The Seneca Nation serves much of the county through its own bus line, which connects its reservations; another service, the Olean Area Transit System, connects the cities of Salamanca and Olean.

Rail
There is no regular passenger rail service in Cattaraugus County; Amtrak does not serve the county. The WNY & PA Railroad, based in Olean, provides freight service on most of the rail routes in Cattaraugus County; the New York and Lake Erie Railroad serves the northwest corner and the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad runs a north-to-south route.

2000 Census
As of the census of 2000, there were 83,955 people, 32,023 households, and 21,647 families residing in the county. The population density was 64 /mi2. There were 39,839 housing units at an average density of 30 /mi2. The racial makeup of the county was 94.63% White, 1.06% Black or African American, 2.60% Native American, 0.46% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.23% from other races, and 1.01% from two or more races. 0.94% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 26.8% were of German, 13.2% Irish, 11.3% English, 9.1% Polish, 8.2% Italian and 7.4% American ancestry according to Census 2000. 95.2% spoke English and 1.4% Spanish as their first language.

There were 32,023 households, out of which 32.10% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.30% were married couples living together, 10.80% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.40% were non-families. 26.80% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.52 and the average family size was 3.05.

In the county, the population was spread out, with 26.20% under the age of 18, 9.30% from 18 to 24, 26.50% from 25 to 44, 23.50% from 45 to 64, and 14.60% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 95.90 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.50 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $33,404, and the median income for a family was $39,318. Males had a median income of $30,901 versus $22,122 for females. The per capita income for the county was $15,959. About 10.00% of families and 13.70% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.60% of those under age 18 and 9.90% of those age 65 or over.

Government and politics

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Cattaraugus County is run by a unicameral legislature who appoint a county "administrator". This individual serves many executive duties of a county executive but has no legislative veto power and is not elected.

The legislators are elected independently by districts (while some also serve as mayors of the villages they represent, their status as mayors does not affect in any way their seats on the legislature and thus it is not a Board of Supervisors). The county uses a system of proportional representation in which each legislator's vote is weighted to the number of persons in their district; each district can have between one and three legislators. This system was imposed in the 1960s in the wake of the one man, one vote federal court rulings of the era; before this, the county operated under a true board of supervisors model. There are currently 17 members of the legislature with 16 Republicans and 1 Democrat. Each legislator serves a four-year term, with a limit of three terms.

All but one of those serving on the county council are Republicans, and only two years in the entire history of the county legislature (1992 to 1994) have seen the Democrats in the majority. Howard VanRensselaer, Sr. of Randolph serves as chairman, and Andy Burr serves as vice-chairman. In 2023, the lone Democrat's seat was redistricted out of existence, prompting the local Democratic Party to withdraw from all county legislature races that year in protest.

Cattaraugus County is entirely within the boundaries of the 148th New York State Assembly District (served currently by Joseph Giglio), the 57th New York State Senate District served currently by George Borrello, and the U.S. House of Representatives 23rd district represented by Nick Langworthy. In the last of these, Cattaraugus County's votes proved pivotal in the 2008 elections: incumbent Republican Randy Kuhl, who had strongly carried the county in 2004 and 2006, lost Cattaraugus County to Democrat Eric Massa in the 2008 elections.

The county generally votes for Republicans in most statewide and national offices. For instance, in 2004 George W. Bush defeated John Kerry in Cattaraugus County by a 60–40 margin, although Bill Clinton won Cattaraugus County very narrowly in 1996. In 2006, the county narrowly chose Eliot Spitzer over John Faso by a margin of about 1 percent in the governor's race, and Hillary Clinton defeated John Spencer in the county by a 10 percentage point margin. In all other positions up for office in 2006, Republicans won all congressional and state legislature representatives. In 2008, the county voted for the Republican presidential candidate, with John McCain defeating Barack Obama by a 55-44% margin. In 2010, Republican Carl Paladino carried Cattaraugus County over Democrat (and eventual winner) Andrew Cuomo 65% to 31%. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Senator Chuck Schumer, both incumbent Democrats, carried the county by 51% to 46% and 54% to 43% margins, respectively. The county regularly has high turnout for presidential elections, with upwards of 70 percent of eligible voters typically voting in the county. Only three Democrats have carried the county since 1900, with Democrats winning in 1912, 1964, and 1996.

An emerging trend among Cattaraugus County's villages has been consolidation with their surrounding towns. Limestone voters approved dissolution into the Town of Carrollton in September 2009; that took effect at the beginning of 2011. On March 18, 2010, three other villages (East Randolph, Randolph and Perrysburg) followed suit and approved dissolution into their surrounding towns (Town of Randolph for the first two, and Town of Perrysburg for the third); these three villages dissolved at the beginning of 2012.

Additional facts
Two geological formations, both called "Rock City," have the appearance of a town laid out with streets. One is in Olean and the other is in Little Valley.

Olean is the largest city in the county and is the major center for business. Ski country runs through Cattaraugus County; two ski resorts, popular with Canadians, lie in the town of Ellicottville: Holiday Valley Resort and HoliMont; Cattaraugus County once had numerous ski resorts within its bounds, scattered throughout the county, before contracting into Ellicottville alone by 1980. In addition, several snowmobile trails cross the county, including the Pat McGee Trail, a flagship for the county's trail system, and the North Country Trail.

Cattaraugus County is considered part of Appalachia, as well as Western New York, upstate New York, the Southern Tier, the Twin Tiers and the Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Olean Combined Statistical Area. As a result of being at a geographic crossroads, the people of Cattaraugus County speak a variety of accents, ranging from mild variants of Appalachian English to Inland Northern American English, with a handful of people speaking in the more loud and nasal Buffalo English.

The sales tax in Cattaraugus County is 8% (4% from New York, 4% from the county).

A large Amish community is located in the western part of the county; with an estimated 2,500 residents, they constitute slightly under 3% of the county's population. A portion of this community maintains an exceptionally older order that eschews indoor plumbing, which, combined with a small number of Seneca who still live on traditional subsistence, gives the county a high rate of homes without indoor plumbing compared to nearby counties.

Newspapers

 * Salamanca Press (weekly, serving central and western Cattaraugus County)
 * Olean Times Herald (daily, serving all of the western Twin Tiers)
 * Olean Source (free weekly)
 * Franklinville Mercury-Gazette (free weekly)
 * The Villager (free weekly, based in Ellicottville)
 * Randolph Register (monthly)
 * Ellicottville Snowed In / The Summer Local (monthly)
 * Gowanda—Silver Creek Pennysaver (weekly, published out of Fredonia)
 * Pennysaver News (weekly, published by The Buffalo News, which is also distributed throughout the county)

Radio stations

 * WPIG (95.7, Olean)
 * WOLY (1450, translator on 107.1, Olean and 105.5 in Carrolton)
 * WOLN (91.3, Olean, operated out of Buffalo)
 * WQRS (98.3, Salamanca, operated out of Olean, transmitter in Carrollton)
 * WGGO (1590, Salamanca, transmitter in Kill Buck, operated out of Williamsville)
 * WOEN (1360, translator on 96.3, Olean)
 * WMXO (101.5, translator on 101.1, Olean)
 * WSBU (88.3, St. Bonaventure)
 * WTWT (90.5, transmitter in Allegany, licensed to Bradford, PA, operated out of Russell, PA)
 * WCGB (91.9, Franklinville, operated by Family Life Network out of Steuben County)
 * WCGS (105.9, Little Valley, operated by Family Life Network out of Steuben County)

WCOR previously operated from 2008 to 2021 out of Portville on 96.7. It has since been relicensed to Lewis Run, Pennsylvania.

Prior to 2014, WKEG-LP operated on 104.7 out of Limestone.

Television stations

 * WWHC-LD (Ch. 20, Olean)
 * WVTT-CD (Ch. 25, licensed to Olean, transmitter on Machias/Yorkshire town line)
 * WBUO-LD (Ch. 30, licensed to Olean, transmitter in Ellicottville)

Education
A branch of Jamestown Community College, in Olean provides higher education for residents. Olean Business Institute provided specialized education and is also in Olean; it closed in 2013 due to financial and enrollment declines. Jamestown Business College operates a satellite campus in Salamanca. Cornplanter College, a tribally controlled college, opened in 2014 in Salamanca. St. Bonaventure University is located in its own census-designated place just west of Olean.

Geographical K-12 school districts include:

 * Allegany-Limestone Central School District
 * Cattaraugus-Little Valley Central School District
 * Cuba-Rushford Central School District
 * Ellicottville Central School District
 * Forestville Central School District
 * Franklinville Central School District
 * Frewsburg Central School District
 * Gowanda Central School District
 * Hinsdale Central School District
 * Olean City School District
 * Pine Valley Central School District (South Dayton)
 * Portville Central School District
 * Randolph Central School District
 * Salamanca City School District
 * Springville-Griffith Institute Central School
 * West Valley Central School District
 * Yorkshire-Pioneer Central School District

Additionally Randolph Academy Union Free School District includes two institutions that care for children, with one of them being in the county.

Larger Settlements

†† - Former Village

† - County Seat

‡ - Not Wholly in this county

* Note that data is only available for Salamanca and Olean.

Towns

 * Allegany
 * Ashford
 * Carrollton
 * Coldspring
 * Conewango
 * Dayton
 * East Otto
 * Elko (dissolved 1965)
 * Ellicottville
 * Farmersville
 * Franklinville
 * Freedom
 * Great Valley
 * Hinsdale
 * Humphrey
 * Ischua
 * Leon
 * Little Valley
 * Lyndon
 * Machias
 * Mansfield
 * Napoli
 * New Albion
 * Olean
 * Otto
 * Perrysburg
 * Persia
 * Portville
 * Randolph
 * Red House
 * Salamanca
 * South Valley
 * Yorkshire

Hamlets

 * Bedford Corners
 * Farmersville Station
 * Jimerson Town
 * Kill Buck
 * Sandusky
 * Steamburg
 * Versailles

Indian reservations

 * Allegany Reservation
 * Cattaraugus Reservation
 * Oil Springs Reservation

Notable people

 * Bill Bergey, professional football player
 * Governor Blacksnake, Seneca war chief and possibly the world's oldest man
 * Ray Caldwell of Salamanca, MLB pitcher
 * William R. Case of Little Valley, founder of the eponymous knife company
 * Anna Botsford Comstock, 1854–1930, artist, Cornell professor, leader of nature study movement
 * Chuck Crist of Salamanca, professional football player
 * Carlos L. Douglass, farmer and Wisconsin State Assemblyman
 * Brian Dunkleman of Ellicottville, co-host of the first season of American Idol
 * Ray Evans (1915–2007) of Salamanca, member of famous songwriting duo alongside Jay Livingston
 * Ira Joe Fisher of Salamanca and Little Valley, poet and television weatherman at CBS
 * James F. Hastings of Olean, retired former U.S. Congressman (served from 1969 to 1976)
 * William C. Hayward (1847-1917), Iowa Secretary of State
 * Marvin "Marv" Hubbard of Red House, professional football player
 * Timothy Kellner U.S. Army Staff Sergeant of Ischua, regarded as one of the top snipers in U.S. history with 139 confirmed kills during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
 * Riki Lindhome of Portville, actress and member of the satirical musical group "Garfunkel and Oates"
 * Ted Marchibroda, NFL Head Coach of Baltimore Colts/Ravens, attended St. Bonaventure University
 * Paul Owens (1924–2003) of Salamanca, professional baseball player, manager, and executive
 * Terrence Pegula of Allegany, multibillionaire natural gas tycoon and professional sports investor
 * Kimberly Pressler of Franklinville, Miss USA 1999
 * Isaac Seneca of Cattaraugus, professional football player
 * Margaret Shulock of Franklinville, cartoonist, part of the ensemble behind the Six Chix comic strip
 * Peter Tomarken (1942–2006) of Olean, host of Press Your Luck
 * Lyman M. Ward, Union Army Brigadier General
 * Louis Zamperini of Olean, Olympic distance runner and World War II prisoner of war

title: Cattaraugus County, New York