E-commerce - Redefining exchanges
NYSE members differ over demutualization
Chicago's fallen giants make progress of sorts
It's just gone 3.30 on a Tuesday afternoon in mid-November. Discussing his firm's e-commerce strategy for equities is the trading head for one of Wall Street's top 10 trading houses. One of his traders comes in. "I just thought you'd better know that Nasdaq's down," he tells his boss. Strange that, disturbing a meeting to give a quick check on which way stocks are going. Er, no. It quickly becomes clear that the intruder is talking about the system. Not the bank's system, but Nasdaq's. Less than half an hour before the close of normal trading hours, no trading can be done.
Unfazed, the trading head turns his attention back to the meeting. He seems remarkably composed. "This happens a lot," says the banker. "Nasdaq wasn't built for these volumes." The worst case was on September 30, the quarter end rebalance for all types of investment funds. And this one just happened to see a lot of activity. "But the system went down soon after 3pm," says the banker. "All the deals are pegged to the last trade, so this really screwed up the quarter-end rebalancing.