The Trading Floor Isn't Dead Yet
Summary
The television broadcasters who reflexively show openings and closings, and whose correspondents breathlessly analyze the market from the floor, are handing the NYSE many millions of dollars of free advertising. IMC could be getting for $30 million what Goldman paid $5.4 billion for in 2000, when it acquired Spear, Leeds & Kellogg, once one of the NYSEs premier middleman companies. As Michael Lewis explains in his controversial book, "Flash Boys," the speed traders are part of an ecosystem with the stock exchange at the center. The exchange also sells the speed traders tailor-made data feeds that contain valuable information about supply and demand in individual stocks, and thus where prices are headed. Purchasing Goldmans specialist unit (theyre now officially called designated market makers) would allow IMC to milk whatever is left in the NYSEs business of trading its listed stocks.