The New York Stock Exchange welcomes a handful of traders for the reopening of the floor

(BFM Bourse) – Two months and three days after closing its famous trading floor – for the first time in 228 years of existence – due to multiple cases of coronavirus, the New York Stock Exchange is once again physically welcoming some of the It does not matter if it is. Only one in four is setting foot on the NYSE floor so far.

It is not the influx of more than two months ago (and even less that of ten or twenty years ago when there were several thousand congregating there), but the New York floor Stock Exchange welcomes traders again since Tuesday. Only 80 of them will be physically present during this partial reopening, which corresponds to 25% of the usual workforce.

The American giant Intercontinental Exchange, owner of the New York Stock Exchange, the oldest market in the United States, had taken the unprecedented decision – in 228 years of history – to switch to 100% electronic quotes since March 23, when several traders had contracted the coronavirus.

Masks and disclaimer

Brokers must nevertheless follow a number of rules. Among those imposed, the ban on using public transport to get to 11 Wall Street, the obligation to wear a mask, to comply with a temperature measurement at the entrance and to respect social distancing, with Plexiglas barriers erected between the posts. On the other hand, it is out of the question to see the famous bell ringing again so soon to mark a successful IPO. Media that traditionally broadcast footage of the session from the floor, such as CNBC, are not allowed to return at this time.

To resume their post, operators must also sign a waiver by waiving in advance to sue the New York Stock Exchange in case of contamination. They must take full responsibility for their physical return by accepting the risk of contracting Covid-19, developing respiratory failure or even dying, and relaying the disease to those around them, according to the discharge in question, of which the Wall Street Journal has could get a copy.

“I am ready and confident that the health and safety of the floor community is the priority of the NYSE,” Jonathan Corpina, managing partner of Meridian Equity Partners, one of the brokerage firms typically present on the floor, said Monday. “It’s a big day for the United States,” he tweeted shortly before the opening of trade on Wall Street on Tuesday. Meridian will have six brokers on site this week, up from 15 before the March close.

Other traders are showing more skepticism when it comes time to return to the floor, when many cases were detected there just before the closing at the end of March. The famous Peter Tuchman of Quattro Securities was one of them. He’s now largely recovered, and told CNBC he understands the risks but appreciates all the steps the NYSE has taken to mitigate them: “We’re two meters apart, with no guests, without “market makers” (these traders usually stand in the middle of the floor and supervise the trading of stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange, the “floor brokers” being able (in normal times) to approach them and shout at them orders to buy or sell shares), with partitions and the ban on taking public transport “. Quattro Securities only has six of its 16 traders on the floor Tuesday and the famous trader is not one of them.

The NYSE has one of the last trading floors in the world (along with Hong Kong, London, Tokyo, Toronto, and Bombay), although its population has been wiped out over the past twenty years by electronic trading.

NYSE officials say the floor is still useful because traders can apply “human judgment” to transactions, especially IPOs and endings, in which floor operators also help keep the floor safe. market liquidity.

Quentin Soubranne – ©2020 BFM Bourse

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