For more than 225 years, our flagship market, the NYSE, has been a central market place for investors to trade solely in NYSE-listed securities -- which today amount to approximately 2,300 listings, including some of the world’s most iconic blue chip companies.
This month, for the first time in our history we introduced trading on NYSE of all 8,000 securities listed on U.S stock exchanges, including exchange traded funds.
New trading opportunities, new technology
The NYSE Group operates multiple markets. For the past two years, we have been transitioning all our markets onto a new state-of-the-art, integrated trading platform called NYSE Pillar, allowing clients to easily connect to all of our markets using a single specification, reducing complexity, while enhancing consistency, performance and resiliency.
We have already completed the migration of two of our exchanges - NYSE Arca (the leading market for ETFs) and NYSE American (our market for small to mid-cap companies) onto NYSE Pillar.
On April 9, we began the first phase in transitioning the NYSE onto NYSE Pillar, which will allow us to support trading in an expanded universe of securities covering all 8,000 securities listed on all U.S stock exchanges. Securities listed on other U.S. securities exchanges will now trade on the NYSE’s Pillar platform. NYSE-listed securities will continue to trade on its current platform until the planned migration onto NYSE Pillar in the near future.
NYSE Unique Market Model
Most stock exchanges today are completely electronic. The NYSE is unique because it’s a hybrid model that combines high-tech computer systems and human judgment from the trading floor. This combination supports leading liquidity - and importantly, market stability as measured by price volatility relative to other venues.
The NYSE is also the only major global exchange with an active trading floor, where live trading can take place at the point of sale.
NYSE Floor Brokers
NYSE trading floor brokers act on an agency-only basis, which means they execute buy and sell orders only on behalf of clients, and are not proprietary traders. Traditionally, floor brokers at the NYSE had substantial discretion and flexibility when representing client orders manually on the trading floor. Today, NYSE blends modern electronic trading with human judgment and assessment, and provides electronic tools that enhance the ability of floor brokers to perform their traditional agency function in today’s fast-paced markets.
With this expansion, NYSE floor brokers can now offer their clients the ability to trade in all U.S securities - allowing them to further benefit from NYSE’s unique market model.
Designated market makers
NYSE is also the only exchange to offer Designated Market Makers or DMMs who have specific obligations and responsibilities to maintain fair and orderly trading in their panel of stocks.
When companies list on the NYSE, they choose one of the five DMM firms. First, the DMM plays an important role in a company’s IPO, helping determine the appropriate opening auction price when the company begins trading as a publicly listed company. After IPO day, the DMM has obligations that lead to tighter spreads, less volatility and greater liquidity in assigned companies. In addition, companies have the assurance of knowing their DMM is at the point of sale, keeping a watchful eye throughout the trading day.
This high-tech/high-touch approach means that NYSE-listed companies benefit from better market quality over a range of measures, such as less volatility and narrower spreads.
Companies that aren’t listed on NYSE do not receive the benefit of a DMM.
It’s this distinctive combination of high tech and high touch which powers global markets with transparency, liquidity and confidence.