This month hundreds of traders, floor brokers, and clerks from four specialist firms and 65 brokerages are moving to a huge new trading room at the New York Stock Exchange
The room, which has 10,000 square feet at 30 Broad Street, does not have a name, unlike other Big Board trading areas (such as the Blue Room), but it does have a modern character.
It provides "the opportunity to introduce reliable new technologies in support of wireless services and multiple applications on high-resolution displays," said Big Board executive vice president Richard A. Edgar.
Situated next to the existing trading facility, the room was designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill. Nine 20-inch flat-screen "monitor packs" display market data at the trading posts. Four large rear-projection video walls on the north side of the trading room consolidate information displayed in the other trading rooms. There are also four video-wall units for breaking news, market data and foreign-exchange currency rates.
An open atmosphere was created. Computers driving the displays on the trading floor are situated on an overhead catwalk. One floor above sits the mechanical plant, which houses the cooling towers. Like the renovated Grand Central Station, indirect lighting softly brightens up the noisy atmosphere.
