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NYSE is Shrinking

Interesting article about the effects of electronic trading on the NYSE.

"Behind the marble facade of its neoclassical fortress on Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange has been the hub of financial activity in Lower Manhattan for more than a century.

But the buzz emanating from its famous trading floor is dying down as computerized trading has rapidly reduced the need for face-to-face transactions. In the next several weeks, the exchange plans to shut two trading rooms that were added decades ago, when its status as the place to buy and sell stocks was unchallenged.

When the latest retreat is complete, the exchange floor will be half the size it was at its peak. The “crowd” — the brokers and clerks on the floor — has dwindled to about 1,700 from a high of more than 3,000. Before the exchange became a public company in 2005, its members controlled 1,366 seats, or licenses to trade. Now, about 800 brokers pay the annual $50,000 fee for a license."

courtesy of NYTimes

Source:
Next to Downsize on Wall Street? The Exchange Floor   
PATRICK McGEEHAN
NYT, September 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/nyregion/23exchange.html

Sunday, September 23, 2007 | 01:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)
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Comments

WOW ! many thanks that was fantastic, I had no idea the machines were talking over so completely

Posted by: Michael Donnelly | Sep 23, 2007 3:23:46 PM

Maybe there's an up and coming travel agency that can expand into the space?

Posted by: Rob Dawg | Sep 23, 2007 4:44:24 PM

I cannot wait when NYSE, the most corrupted exchange in the world, gets rid of all the parasites, floor brokers and specialists. NYSE receives bribes, aka $50K annual fees, that allows a selected group of individuals, floor brokers and specialists to trade ahead of large block orders, manipulate stocks by displaying phony order sizes, switching the tickets, etc. They say that they provide liquidity but it is a boloney, the specialists are more focused on capitalizing on your lot of stock by buying it for their own trading accounts and then flipping it to another buyers. I am tired of them manipulating stocks daily by posting phony sizes in order to lure retail folks into buying or selling a stock. If they need to buy a stock cheap, they show a big phony sell order block, daytraders see it and think that the moneymaker is looking to unload a big block of stock, and quickly sell their shares at the bids; as a result depressing the price to where the specialist wants to buy shares. New NYSE specialist software makes it harder for them to jump ahead of large market orders via NYSE, but the crooks have quickly adopted a way around it by placing their front-running orders through anonymous ECNs.

Posted by: Gloom & Doom | Sep 23, 2007 10:40:02 PM

Interesting that the NYSE is keeping the older rooms open. A good deal of history has occurred on those floors. Couldn’t help but notice that “The Garage” is a year older than Yankee Stadium.

The Garage that Ruth built?

Posted by: mote | Sep 23, 2007 11:13:37 PM

Gloom & Doom,

no offense, but you sound awfully angry at "specialists". If you now know how they 'trick' dumb money, then stop watching Level 2. You shouldn't watch that anyways. If you want to daytrade, learn how to analyze Price Action, forget the rest of the tricks. Remember if it was fair, it wouldn't work. Good Luck and leave your anger at the door, emotions dont belong in trading.

Posted by: Brian B. | Sep 24, 2007 12:12:45 AM

Why use a current photo that is clearly outside of the normal trading hours? It is not that empty down there. And it is not like volume is down either, the order flow is moving into automated systems.

So what? If they were going back to under the buttonwood tree it would be news.

Posted by: mhm | Sep 24, 2007 9:22:30 AM

Say what you will I loved the floor, the traders, Harrys', The Irish Punt, around the corner it was just like hanging on the corner at the junior high level.
Do you think my trading jacket will end up in a museum display???
SLUGGO

Posted by: Gary | Sep 24, 2007 1:31:20 PM