After years of struggling in the shadow of the New York Stock Exchange, has the Amex finally found a formula for survival'?
At 9.30 am, when the trading bell rings. specialist Andrew Schwarz touches a screen in front of him, changing prices on an Apple put, one of nine options he handles. With one eye on the Instinet screen, he then completes a trade in one of the 36 stocks in which his firm holds the book.
Specialists like him are regarded by many as the dinosaurs of the US securities business. They have had to adapt to survive and they are changing along with the American Stock Exchange.
The Amex's evolution front its comfortable role as America's second stock exchange to a hybrid bristling with new products and technology has stopped its slide either into decay or into the New Exchange's arms. "We are the first hybrid exchange," said the Amex president Kenneth Leibler, pointing to a thriving options programme, electronic trading systems and a series of international linkages to endorse his claim.
In the future, the Amex is likely to be a very different exchange. Not since the New York Stock Exchange led its ill-conceived crusade against the unfixing of commissions a decade ago has so much potential change threatened US exchanges.