Landing Liebowitz; faster floor; 'rassling' Russell; and other links

By: Ray Pellecchia

File Under: NYSE

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Happy Friday, folks. Word of a new hire, plus Duncan's comments at an industry conference and elsewhere this week:

NYSE Euronext Hires UBS Executive Leibowitz: NYSE Euronext is hiring a UBS trading executive to help it boost its U.S stock trading business.

The exchange company announced Thursday that it was hiring Lawrence Leibowitz as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for U.S. Products...

Mr. Leibowitz will start at the exchange July 9. He had been chief operating officer of UBS Americas Equities, where he dealt with market structure, comparing various exchanges and trading centers that UBS uses to execute its stock trades. Like many firms, UBS has reduced its floor trading staff at the NYSE in recent months...

NYSE has been working with the Securities and Exchange Commission on possible rule changes that would enhance the role of floor traders known as specialists, while further increasing the speed of trading stocks on the NYSE floor. (WSJ.com)
[I haven't met Larry yet, but I've heard about him over the years and have seen him speak at a number of trade shows. Glad he's on our side. -- RP]

NYSE Euronext's Niederauer Updates Strategy at SIFMA: While "everyone (in the media) wants to write the human interest story about the floor going away," given the role of technology, the floor is going to get smaller. "But I guarantee we will have a trading floor," Niederauer told the SIFMA audience. Niederauer said he'd met with the agents on the floor, who historically could only trade NYSE-listed products, and now they're able to trade Nasdaq stocks, options and European stocks and futures from their booths on the floor.

Though NYSE is operating as a fast market, Niederauer said he didn't want it to become totally automated. "If that number is 100 percent then you've changed the exchange into an automated facility, with no opportunity for price improvement," he cautioned. "We want to be fast when the market wants us to be fast but I've got constituents on the buy and sell-side saying we want to be able to price a block when we need to and we want to have an auction," he said.

On the other hand, now that NYSE has brought its latency down to 100 milliseconds from 30 seconds, Niederauer recognizes that it has to strike a balance. "People will wait a few seconds for price improvement, they won't wait 20 or 30 seconds," he said. (Wall Street & Technology Blog)

NYSE May Close Two Trading Rooms, Niederauer Says (Update2) : The New York Stock Exchange may close two of the four remaining rooms on its trading floor as investors turn to electronic systems instead of individual brokers to complete transactions.

``We're trying to find the most efficient way,'' NYSE Euronext co-President Duncan Niederauer said today at a conference in New York. ``There is no doubt that with more technology and electronic trading the floor is destined to get smaller. I can see us having two or three rooms instead of four.''

The exchange may close the so-called Extended Blue Room by the end of the year after securities listed in the 19-year-old facility move to the all-electronic NYSE Arca market, Niederauer said. The NYSE will then consider whether it needs to keep the Blue Room trading area, he said, adding that the entire process will extend through ``late 2007 or into 2008.'' (Bloomberg .com)

Future of Trading:
Dylan Ratigan: Will the floor be here populated by traders five years from now?
Duncan Niederauer: I'll be here and the floor will be here. I promise you that.
(CNBC.com; free registration required)

And I'm sure you don't need to be reminded, but I'll mention anyway that it's Russell Reconstitution Friday. I know it's a huge event in terms of preparation, and that it will be a huge event in terms of trading volume, especially at the close; I hope it will be a non-event in terms of impact.

Can't let you go into all that heavyosity without a bit of the ol' historical trivia:

Today in NYSE History: 22 Jun 1964 -- The first "900" stock ticker was installed, operating at 900 characters per minute, nearly twice as fast as the previous model. (NYSE.com)

Plus, a lot of rock birthdays On This Day:
Kris Kristofferson, 71
Peter Asher, 63 (Peter and Gordon)
Howard "Eddie" Kaylan, 60 (The Turtles, Flo and Eddie)
Todd Rundgren, 59
Cynndi Lauper, 54
Garry Beers, 50 (INXS)
Alan Anton, 48 (Cowboy Junkies)
Mike Edwards, 43 (Jesus Jones) (OK, I can't actually name any Cowboy Junkies or Jesus Jones songs.)
Steven Page, 37 (Barenaked Ladies) (OK, I can't name a BL song right now, but I know these guys, I swear.)
Mary Lynn Rajskub, 36 (OK, an actress, not a rock star, but I couldn't resist a shout-out because she's a standout as Chloe on "24.")

Tags: New York Stock Exchange, Hybrid Market, NYSE, NYSE Euronext, NYX, trading, stock market