At the news conference, Thain said his goal was to ensure the exchange remains "the most liquid and most efficient marketplace and that may involve a greater degree of electronic trading." Well, well... electronic trading of NYSE stocks is inevitable! Any comments concerning how this will KILL the specialist's system? It appears to me the days of the pro firms who rely on the specialists system are numbered.
Pro firms that trade the specialist system are in trouble... I hear many locations are closing in 2004.
your little boxes will never have instant cancels on the nyse your not smart enuf to play the REAL game give it up NYSE will live long and prosper without your lame little programs that your too afraid to use
thain is still a president at gsco... the only thing hes going to be doing is figuring out ways to keep the dinosaur specialist system alive, gsco didn't pay billions for slk only to watch it go bust...
i heard his stake in goldman is $300 million........the only way these guys are going to change is by force.
Looking at the GS Q3 10-Q, revenue from their entire equity trading business comprised just 21% of their total revenue (for Q1-Q3). They comment that the expenses are similar in percentage terms among all their businesses, so this percentage should carry through to the bottom line. That 21% includes all of their proprietary position trading, options trading, Nasdaq MMs, etc., in addition to their specialist operation. If I had to pick a number, I'd guess that the total banishment of the specialist system might make no more than a 10% dent in their net. This assumes that their spec operation is actually profitable similarly to the rest of their business, that they wouldn't find any way to derive income from making electronic markets in those stocks, etc., all of which seems like a stretch. Reality would probably be much better. Am I reading this right? More on topic, I think the NYSE was totally wrong not to realize that they needed to separate regulation from operations. The hell of it is, they'll hurt everyone by their inaction, making people think they need to abolish the specialist system instead of simply regulating it properly.