I doubted that they would be gone 10 years ago when everyone said "2 years" - Same thing in 2001, and now I think they'll be around for some time to come. The Goldman's of the world need to have the ability to make large prints, with Specialist over-rides and pre-negotiation...and until that changes, I think they will be here. I like the "single marketplace" idea (although we have many ECN's), and we need a "person" to determine pricing of block trades. Back a bit later.. Don
Don... Do you really trade stocks or understand how the specialist system works? "The Goldman's of the world need to print" I and anyone else who has a natural cross can print in the THIRD MARKET via ACT! What a joke...
Ok determining a price for a block... that does not have to happen on the floor... Please explain "Specialist Over-rides"... because this is VERY UNCLEAR...
nyse is not finished, wait til the algos that hit with the new order types son, you ought to knock on wood
OK, let me try to explain, the pricing does have to be determined on the floor because of the NBBO (National Best Bid Offer) and NMS rules (which are being enacted as we speak), with the exception of "crosses" and "matched trades" within current bid/offer pricing....so, when large blocks are being put up on the NYSE, or large buy or sell orders need executing, the Specialist "closes" the book and "sweeps" up or down as far as is needed to accommodate the size of the order. We see a quick color change on our quote lines which indicates that the Specialist is running under "manual" control vs. automated algo's. That is the "over-ride" of automated trading. This happens many times a day in most listed stocks. Hope this helps a bit... Don