I'm an ex MM from the Amex and CBOE, wondering if anyone is still on the floor, what the seat prices(+tech BS) are and what the crowd etiquete is... Thank you.
i chatted with an ex mm on stock xchange floor ... he now manages his small hedge fund. He told me it got really crowded on the floor during the bubble period. of course, now with decimalization it's hard to earn a living market making
Once upon a time, a little man named Dewey snuck into the exchange one night and stole all of the fractions away from the specialists. Now we trade in pennies instead of fractions. Etymology: French décimal, from Medieval Latin decimalis of a tithe, from Latin decima tithe -- more at DIME : numbered or proceeding by tens: a : based on the number 10; especially : expressed in or utilizing a decimal system especially with a decimal point b : subdivided into 10th or 100th units. Etymology: Middle English fraccioun, from Late Latin fraction-, fractio act of breaking, from Latin frangere to break -- more at BREAK 1 a : a numerical representation (as 3/4, 5/8, 3.234) indicating the quotient of two numbers b (1) : a piece broken off : Remember 1/8's!................Enkid....about 4 years ago, all stocks traded in fractions, then they went to decimals. A decimal like .10....12....etc.
Thank you very much for the explantion. Still new to the business but learning. So pretty much the market got more efficient and the floor traders no longer had a license to steal? or is that the wrong analogy?
It depends on which side of the fence you are on! 5 years ago you could "flip" a position for a 1/8 or 3/16. Now you have to average into a larger position to make anything.