NYSE Readies Floor For 'Next Generation'
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A push to modernize the floor of the New York Stock Exchange by providing a few creature comforts is expected to attract a whole new generation of traders. NY1's Diane King filed the following report.Known as the foot soldiers, the floor brokers who zip around the New York Stock Exchange, or "Big Board," have become synonymous with Wall Street. They execute trades for their firm's clients, big investors like mutual funds and pension funds.
The floor brokers are used to working at classic trading booths, small quarters where they stand on their feet for hours. But there are fewer people on "the floor" than there used to be. Now the Big Board is trying to bring some of the trading business back, using comfort and efficiency as a pitch. The NYSE calls it the Next Generation.
"So it's 18 inches of work space standing six and a half hours a day, versus sitting six and a half hours a day and 28, 30 inches of desk room. And then from the comfort level a move to actual functionality we go from one or two screens to a possibility of six screens that some of the traders are using now," explains New York Stock Exchange Senior Vice President Bob Airo.
Everyone in New York can relate to wanting more space, and it's no different down on the floor. For the pleasure of taking a seat, companies rent the workspace for $12,000 for three years. The stock exchange has already had seven firms move in, and boasts of a waiting list as it builds the space out.
"So what it's allowed us to do, is it's allowed all our New York based sales traders and brokers to be in the same location to share information to communicate at the point of sale in the largest equity market in the world," says Cuttone & Company Senior Vice President Keith Bliss.
As for the energy level on the floor, it's often pretty high. When asked if a more sedentary environment would damage that, Bliss says not so.
"Having them together actually increases the energy level because they can share ideas, they can trade information," says Bliss.
With the seven figure renovation, the NYSE is betting other firms will share the same sentiment -- traders want more space, they want to be together, and sitting down can't hurt.