'Lehman's entry as a market maker reinforces confidence in the specialist system, which distinguishes our market from all others,' he wrote. In an email announcing the Lehman-Van der Moolen deal to floor participants Tuesday, Niederauer embraced the business. Has softened his approach to the specialist system. Proponents of the floor have found an unlikely ally in a former enemy: Duncan Niederauer. 'It was more important when the floor was important,' he said. He agreed with Pisani that the Big Board was a place where reporters talked to sources, where market information was readily found and where news happened.īut Kofsky said the quality and quantity of market information have declined along with the ranks. Kofsky said that the live reports and coverage of the opening and closing bells give the exchange TV exposure and gravitas. 'Call me old-fashioned, but I love trading floors,' he said, adding later that, for companies, 'it's a big day when you go public on the NYSE.' When it comes to the markets, Pisani said he can go to a station on the floor and 'see the order flow' happening. During his decade there, he's met hundreds of chief executives, heads of state, celebrities and other newsmakers. “It lends credibility with listeners or viewers 'to say the words 'reporting live from the New York Stock Exchange.'' ” - Larry Kofsky, MarketWatch RadioĬNBC's Bob Pisani said he considers himself 'an embedded reporter' at the NYSE. 'It gives them a presence much like having a reporter at city hall.' Live reports from the NYSE's floor are prominent on almost every business broadcast, including those from CNBC, Fox Business Network, PBS's Nightly Business Report and CNN.īroadcasters believe it lends credibility with listeners or viewers 'to say the words 'reporting live from the New York Stock Exchange,'' said Larry Kofsky, a reporter with MarketWatch Radio who broadcasts from the exchange. Perhaps more importantly, it also served as a kind of capitol of investing. But the speed of its demise presents a unique problem: Without specialists and brokers, what will happen to the iconic floor? The studioĪs recently as a year ago, the floor was a central marketplace for stock trading. Meanwhile, diversification efforts under John Thain, the Big Board's former chief executive, have made the loss of business on the floor a financial afterthought. Investors have embraced the electronic markets for about 95% of their trades, so a shift would hardly come as a shock. Should all or a significant amount of the seven big NYSE specialists exit the business, trades can always go to Arca, the electronic platform that the exchange bought in 2005.

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