System status via RSS; new GS Connect ETN; anatomy of a halt; trading views

By: Ray Pellecchia

File Under: ETFs / Indexes, NYSE

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NYSE System Status is a new way to get an instant alert any time there's a problem with our trading systems. You can subscribe to it via RSS. Yesterday was the first time we used it to broadcast a problem: my colleagues alerted customers that NYSE OpenBook, a data feed that is vital to trading, had to be restarted. A summary page containing the messages we sent is screen-grabbed above, thanks to my screen-grabbing colleague Michelle Pessoa. I subscribe to System Status via RSS, and it worked great.

System Status lives on the top right of the Market Professionals page of NYSE.com, which is where you can monitor it and subscribe to the RSS feed. When NYSE trading systems are operating normally, NYSE System Status displays an "All Systems Normal" message. When a problem occurs, the system posts an update with a brief description of the nature and extent of the situation. Continued updates are posted until the problem is resolved. The reports are aggregated historically in a printable format on a Status Report Page.

Did I mention you can subscribe via RSS? Sorry, got a little carried away. Love my RSS.

Goldman Sachs Lists GS Connect(TM) S&P GSCI(TM) Enhanced Commodity Total Return Strategy Index ETN on the NYSE -- The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc (NYSE: GS) listed their first Exchange Traded Note (ETN), the GS Connect(TM) S&P GSCI(TM) Enhanced Commodity Total Return Strategy Index ETN on the NYSE under the ticker symbol GSC. This ETN is based on the S&P GSCI(TM) Enhanced Commodity Total Return Strategy Index, a total return index that reflects the excess returns and the interest on funds that are potentially available through an unleveraged investment in the commodity futures contracts as are included in the S&P GSCI Index. (NYSE.com)

I'd be lying if I told you I totally get all that potentially-available-through-underleveraged-investment stuff, but I know it means something significant to you ETN traders out there. I'll ask Lisa Dallmer, our ETF chief, when I have a chance. In the meantime, welcome aboard, GSC.

Anatomy of a Halt -- The New York Stock Exchange halted trade in shares of American Home Mortgage Investment....When will AHM get the green light to trade again? It depends. Companies must notify the exchange 10 minutes before they issue material news that could affect trade in their stock during market hours. At that point, a decision is made as to whether to halt trade. The NYSE requires companies to issue news releases, which the exchange reviews, to disclose any material information. Once the news has been disseminated to everyone’s satisfaction, trade may re-open. [Note, the stock re-opened yesterday afternoon, and this post is updated to reflect that.] (WSJ.com MarketBeat blog)

Trading Partners -- If floor traders in Manhattan didn't already get the memo, the New York Mercantile Exchange made the future clear for them Tuesday. There isn't one. (Forbes.com)

That's a cute lede. I can't wait 'til we prove it wrong.

This Forbes.com piece is mostly about the New York Merc, which I know nothing about. But it also touches on NYSE. Which I know *almost* nothing about. But everything I do know tells me floor trading adds value and has a future here.

Every major trading firm on the Street has a trading floor that probably dwarfs or at least rivals the NYSE's in size. It's filled with people talking with customers, looking at screens, talking to other traders, using their judgment, taking risk, sending and executing orders -- in other words, trading. In particular, they work on the bigger, more difficult trades, the ones that are touch to do with machines alone. The people on the NYSE trading floor do the same things, except standing up instead of sitting down.

My point is that all those people in all those trading floors on the Street are adding value to customers, or they wouldn't be there. Ours are doing the same. And with their perseverance and the changes that are underway here, they'll continue to do so.

End of rant. Welcome to the first day of August. Some musical notables born On This Day: Francis Scott Key, 1779-1843 (I confess to loving "The Star Spangled Banner," and I always tear up at that last part, "...o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"); Jerry Garcia (1942-gone too soon in 1995); Ramblin' Jack Elliott, who turns 76 today and was a key influence on Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs); Robert Cray, 54; Coolio, 44; and Adam Duritz, 43 (Counting Crows).

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