• Sep
  • 30
  • 2008
  • 5:43 PM

Dow Jones: 'Specialists' Moves Mon May Have Staved Off Bigger Mkt Fall'

By: Ray Pellecchia
File Under: NYSE

Further to my posts earlier today and last Friday, here's an article from Dow Jones Newswires earlier today: "Specialists' Moves Mon May Have Staved Off Bigger Mkt Fall." Sorry, no link available, but I'll keep an eye out for this being picked up in the Wall Street Journal or elsewhere. Excerpts:

Black Monday could have been even darker.

Proponents of open-outcry trading say that specialist market makers on the New York Stock Exchange, faced with a flood of selling orders late Monday, took the buy side or aggressively solicited for buyers on several large financial companies that were selling off. By assuming the role of buyers or soliciting them, these specialists may have helped limit losses at the bell. ...

... "If this was purely electronic, it could have been down 1200 or 1300 on the Dow," said Bernie McSherry, a senior vice president with Cuttone & Co., the largest independent floor operator at the NYSE. ...

"[Specialists] created trades that otherwise would not have occurred...when someone alerts a broker and says look at this, you create an interest. That facilitates trading that doesn't happen in other markets," said Dave Humphreville, president of the Specialist Association, which represents market makers on the floor of the NYSE.

Comments

Great post Ray. Now lets get the specialists more involved with adding liquidity and stabilizing the stocks that trade on the NYSE. No more point swings on 100 share prints. Thanks

by tony dey on September 30, 2008 5:55 PM

Ray,

Check out the disaster Nasdaq has going on with the close of google today. Your posts and recent events are making a powerful case for listing on nyse.

by Brown on September 30, 2008 9:16 PM

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