Duncan on CNBC today @ 4:15 p.m.

By: Ray Pellecchia

File Under: Liffe derivatives, NYSE

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My boss is scheduled to be interviewed on CNBC today at 4:15 p.m. I have no idea what he'll be asked, but recently in these sessions he has talked about what's ahead not only for the New York trading floor but for the whole NYSE Euronext enterprise.

I say scheduled, because you never know in TV news if you're going to get preempted by something else, something crazy, something that could never happen in a million years, for example, oh, I dunno, something like Britney Spears's 16-year-old sister getting pregnant. I mean, just couldn't happen, but you never know.

Anyway, I'll be watching for our chief after the close.

Some other news of note:

NYSE to cut floor trading fees (eFinancial News) Excerpt:

The New York Stock Exchange is planning to slash its floor trading fees by 20% next year in order to boost the exchange's specialists whose traditional role has been effectively made redundant by the shift to electronic trading.

The exchange plans to reduce the license fee for floor trading by 20%. It currently stands at $50,000 (€34,701) and NYSE proposes to cut the price by $10,000, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. ...

The spokesman said: “The fee reduction is one of several changes being made at the NYSE to further enhance the competitiveness of the trading floor community and this is completely independent of the rebate scheme available with NYSE Euronext.”

Since launching its hybrid model, 85% of NYSE equities volumes are traded electronically, although this decreased to 75% in August when volatility increased and clients wanted more orders to be handled manually. ...

NYSE Euronext reports record volumes for cash, derivatives markets in 2007 (AFX News) Excerpt:

NYSE Euronext Inc said its cash and derivatives markets have achieved record trading volumes in 2007, with fastest growth at its London-based Liffe derivatives exchange.

Preliminary figures also show NYSE Euronext was the world's top exchange for initial public offerings, measured by IPO proceeds of 78 bln eur or 53 bln eur, the company said.

' NYSE Euronext's US and European equities and derivatives exchanges experienced unprecedented growth in 2007,' Duncan Niederauer, the CEO, said in a statement.

For more on that last item, here's our news release.

Sorry to be so quiet in this space the last couple of weeks. I'll explain in a future post. In the meantime, a bit of historical trivia for you:

Today in NYSE History
20 Dec 1966 -- Optical card readers fully automated the transmission of trade data from the floor to the ticker network.

A later version of those card readers was still on the floor when I joined up in 1988. In fact, at the time, non-operational types like me went for quarterly training on filling out those cards (recording trades and updating quotes) for contingency purposes. Luckily the specialists and brokers had to put up with me for only a few minutes each quarter. My experiences usually went something like this.

Specialist: "AthousandALDtradesatthefigure."

Broker: "Twothouataneighth!"

Me: "OK, wait, so that was a thousand shares traded, and the price was..."

Specialist: "Kid? Kid, your hour's over. You can go back upstairs now."

Me: "Great, see you next quarter!"