Some NYSE Floor Trading Interrupted By Malfunction (Update4) By Edgar Ortega and Michael Patterson Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Brokers at the New York Stock Exchange turned to pen and paper to complete trades after a problem affecting their hand-held computers interrupted floor trading for more than four hours. The exchange's other electronic systems worked properly throughout the day, and 2.26 billion shares traded on the Big Board, the most in five months. ``Our hand-helds are virtually useless,'' said Randy Post, who runs floor broker R.H. Post Inc. ``In order to execute orders, we have to go back to a pad and a pen.'' The Broker Booth Support System, used to connect floor brokers with specialists who complete trades, malfunctioned, exchange-owner NYSE Group Inc. said in a statement. Some traders said their ``e-Broker'' hand-held devices for transmitting orders didn't work. Brokers trade an average of 483 million shares a day with the devices, according to the NYSE Group Web site. The malfunction began at about 10:06 a.m. in New York. By 2:15 p.m., the technical issues were fixed and the system was ``fully operational,'' NYSE Group said. Customer orders were processed through proprietary broker systems and electronically through the Super Designated Order Turnaround System, or SuperDOT, and the Hybrid Market system. SuperDOT and Hybrid Market are automated systems that allow brokerages to send electronic orders to the exchange. An estimated 13 percent of the daily trading volume on the NYSE is handled by floor brokers, according to Richard Adamonis, a spokesman for NYSE Group. ``It's a frustrating issue for my guys on the floor,'' said Kenneth Polcari, a managing director at Polcari & Weicker, a New York-based brokerage firm. ``We're only experiencing lateness in getting reports done, since doing them manually is not as efficient as having them automated.'' Hybrid Market NYSE Group, which is losing trading in its own listed stocks to Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. and other all-electronic rivals, plans to reverse the decline in its market share with the Hybrid Market. The system combines automated trading with the exchange's traditional face-to-face negotiations between brokers, cutting down the time to complete transactions to a fraction of a second from about nine seconds. All of the roughly 2,700 NYSE-listed stocks will trade on the Hybrid Market by year end. ``It wasn't a cataclysmic event for clients or traders,'' said Thomas Caldwell, chairman of Toronto-based money manager Caldwell Securities, which owns shares in NYSE Group. ``It's an irritant, it's an upset, it's inconvenient, but it's not something that would change the pattern or style of doing business.'' Shares of NYSE Group rose $4.35, or 4.5 percent, to $100.10 in New York. To contact the reporters on this story: Edgar Ortega in New York at ebarrales@bloomberg.net ; Michael Patterson in New York at mpatterson10@bloomberg.net . Last Updated: November 30, 2006 16:29 EST