New York Stock Exchange
NYSE sits at the intersection of Wall Street and Broad Street, and is second only to the Statue of Liberty when it comes to must-see lists in downtown Manhattan. It lists the second largest number of companies of any exchange worldwide, but stands well above others in terms of the value of those companies. Over $21 trillion worth of listings are held on the NYSE.
Recently, NYSE has been one of the world’s last exchanges to begin the process of moving away from floor trading and towards electronic transactions. Since the introduction of a “hybrid” or side-by-side structure, over 50% of the volume of shares traded on the exchange have been booked electronically.
NYSE is participating in the global wave of consolidation among financial exchanges, as it is in the process of merging with Euronext, itself one of the largest exchanges in Europe in terms of the number of shares traded. This move gives NYSE a foothold in the derivatives markets, which is valued at over $120 trillion by all but the most conservative estimates.
November 30th, 2006 at 3:11 am
[…] I’ve made mention of the fierce NY-London financial rivalry in a previous post. For the uninitiated, the basic argument is that restrictive laws and policies (like Sarbanes-Oxley) have caused New York to lose its edge in financial markets. Large companies looking to go public have instead turned to London and in many cases Hong Kong rather than going the traditional route of listing on the all-powerful New York Stock Exchange. […]