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FLASHBACK FRIDAY: The NYSE Rises Once Again

Traders Magazine Online News, July 28, 2017

Nina Mehta

Thirteen years ago the nation’s oldest exchange, founded under a Buttonwood Tree, was struggling. At that time, the Big Board was an embattled institution, toying with the idea of an auction market system and moving to a more hybrid market. Also, the NYSE was losing a public relations war – eyed as the an “evil empire” that kept rivals out and wanted to rule the exchange world with an iron fist. Fast forward 13 years and the bourse is alive and still changing with the times.

The only constant in the world, some say, is change. And the NYSE, as well as its rivals have been forced to embrace change. Market participants have pointed to myriad driving forces pushing the exchanges to evolve; changes in market structure, new entrants such as high-frequency traders, IEX and new regulations, to name a few. Whether or not the resultant changes at the NYSE or other exchanges has been good is the subject of another article – but the fact remains that the NYSE remains in business and as one of the nation’s largest exchanges.

“The NYSE names still carries a certain amount of clout,” said one trader. “When many people think of stock exchanges they see Wall Street and the NYE façade. Or they envision the trading pits seen on CNBC and countless movies. Aside from the bull statue on Broadway, the NYSE remains the iconic image of Wall Street and stock trading.”

 

This article was originally published in July 2004

The NYSE Rises Once Again: The Big Board now says it's ready for a turnaround

By Nina Mehta

The Big Board will change for the better in more ways than one, according to supporters of the exchange, an embattled institution that may be slowly emerging from a dark and difficult period.

These New York Stock Exchange diehards - floor traders and brokers, and an assortment of other professionals both inside and outside the exchange who are proponents of the auction market system - concede missteps. They agree that the much-maligned NYSE has taken several black eyes over the past year, much to the delight of its electronic competitors.

But now many of the Big Board's members say that it is ready to make constructive changes, which will transform it into a hybrid market. And it will also battle back in a public relations war that it has been losing. This is a media contest in which the old market has been depicted as a virtual evil empire.

"We've got to fight it, move through it," says Ed Rode, an NYSE floor broker with Capital Institutional Services (CAPIS), an agency broker. "The industry is so huge that we don't have the right to play with this prototype."

At stake are the jobs of hundreds of NYSE trading pros. These jobs are threatened by a dynamic marketplace and the NYSE's public relations problems. The exchange is now pulling out the stops to win the hearts and pocketbooks of the investing community.

Floor pros say the biggest attraction of the 212-year-old NYSE is price discovery. "Here, it's not about exchanging ownership of shares," Rode says. "Our whole raison d'etre is responsible price discovery - to determine the price of a given company's shares at a particular point in time."

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