Last day to sign up for Reg. NMS test

By: Ray Pellecchia

File Under: NYSE

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Welcome to the working week, folks. A colleague reminds me that the big event here this week takes place Saturday, June 30: the industry-wide systems test in advance of July 9, when the the broker-dealer component of Reg. NMS goes into effect.

Today is the last day to sign up for this Saturday's exercise. Here's the note we sent to the industry last week:

Reg. NMS Industry Test – June 30, 2007
Request for Registration by Monday, June 25, 2007

In anticipation of the July 9th Reg. NMS Pilot Phase, the NYSE looks forward to supporting our firms by participating in an industry-wide test on Saturday, June 30. The purpose of the test is for you to ensure changes you have made to your systems to comply with Reg. NMS.

The NYSE will bring its systems up on Saturday, June 30, at 9:00 am, Eastern Time (ET), with a normal 9:30 am, ET, open and a close at 12:00 p.m., ET with the test concluding at 12:30 pm ET.

The NYSE selected the following securities so firms may sustain concentrated liquidity for a more efficient test:

BA
C
CE
CL
DOW
ETH
GNW
HEW
KBR
SYY
TXN
UIS

We will use the last sales and open order files for the 12 securities from the close of business on Friday, June 29, 2007. Please note that you will only receive executions, UR Outs, etc., on these 12 securities. If you enter orders in symbols other than the 12 above, the orders will not reject; you will not, however, receive an acknowledgement of the order.

CTS/CQS will be open during the test. NYSE will transmit market data information (quotes and trades) to firms with SFTI connections for market data information. If you do not connect directly to the Exchange for this information, please check with your vendor on availability.

BBSS and Floor Broker Handhelds will not be in operation during the day of the test, but orders will be routed to the other markets participating in the test, as warranted. The NYSE urges firms to send order flow that is realistic to a typical days trading activity, as this is not a capacity test.

To provide the most realistic environment for the test, the NYSE is not using a separate test environment. We will use the systems you use every day to route order flow to the NYSE. Therefore, any residual test data left in the lines after the test is completed will be purged.

Whether or not you participate in the test, we advise all member firms not to allow messages/orders, etc., to be queued over the weekend in CMS for Monday morning.

Member Firm Participant Registration

Please respond by Monday, June 25, with the following information:

Name of Member Firm _____________________________________________________

Member Firm Contact Name ________________________________________________
Email _________________________________________________
Phone Number _________________________________________
Phone Number on Day of Test _____________________________

Member Firm Mnemonics You Plan to Use during the Test: __________________________________________________

Please respond to this email by Monday, June 25, with the above information if you plan to participate in the Reg. NMS Industry Wide Test or send the information directly to memberfirmsales@nyse.com.

If you have further questions about this test, please contact your sales representative directly or the SFTI Help Desk at 1-866-USE-SIAC.

My sympathies to those of you who will have to clock in on Saturday, but hopefully this will make July 9 go much smoother for everyone.

One post-script to last Friday's Russell reconstitution event:

New Danger : Premature Electronic Trading: According to Hybrid Talk: First trade at NYSE (for Blackstone) was at 9:52:39 a.m. at $36.45, for 18 million shares. Yes, one trade, 18 million shares. That one trade represented about 500 buyers and sellers coming together at that level - not one single block. Shortly before the opening, other markets were quoting and executing Blackstone at $45 a share. Associated Press report on the mix-up: The mishap underscores the debate over whether computers are better than people at trading stocks, which has been a strong point of contention among traders in recent years. (Aleablog)

Aleablog is relatively new to me, and this is a pretty straightforward pickup of the AP story and our post. I just couldn't resist the headline.

On the historical-trivia front, nothing of note here today, but yesterday was the anniversary of an important day.

This Day in NYSE History: 24 June 1971 -- Daniels & Bell became the first black-controlled NYSE member firm.

This history is detailed in Gregory Bell's "In The Black," pictured above and discussed below on AtlantaTribune.com:

Gregory S. Bell delivers a magnificent history of African-American financiers with In the Black. Bell - who is the son of Travers Bell, cofounder of Daniels & Bell, the first black-owned member of the New York Stock Exchange - has interests that extend beyond his father's. In addition to the rich history of African-American pioneers on Wall Street, "In the Black" is also a journey through the history of blacks in a corporate America that was particularly treacherous in decades past.

Bell's narrative starts in the mid-17th century with the beginning of New York's financial district. African-American pioneers are profiled from that period through the roaring 20s, when high-risk trading and speculation provided opportunities for black entrepreneurs with little to lose. In the Black chronicles the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the "Negro Wall Street," and the subsequent Tulsa Race Riot. Bell explores a host of early business trailblazers, including Arthur Gadson, H.R. George and the Jones brothers. Bell also observes black capitalists from around the country who weren't directly involved in securities - Alonzo Herndon, Madame C.J. Walker and others - but who provided a paradigm for other black businesspeople to eventually follow.

And on the musical-trivia front, it was On This Day in 1967 that the Beatles performed "All You Need is Love" on a live international telecast. Remember: Nothing you can do, but you can learn how to be you in time. Also, today is Carly Simon's 62nd birthday. Saw her in concert once, many years ago, and she was great. For an encore, James Taylor came out (that's how long ago it was), and they did "Mockingbird" together and brought down the house.

Tags: New York Stock Exchange, Hybrid Market, NYSE, NYSE Euronext, NYX, trading, stock market, Russell, Reg. NMS, SECl, Daniels & Bell, In The Black, Beatles, Carly Simon