Thursday, January 13, 2005
Buy your own seat on the New York Stock Exchange, cheap.
Competition, in the form of new electronic markets, finally reaches even the NYSE itself...
The New York Stock Exchange received a dual blow as seat prices dropped below $1 million and American International Group, one of its biggest companies, said it will also list its shares on an all-electronic market.By almost two-thirds, 63%.
The $975,000 sale of a seat, or membership, was the first below $1 million since 1995. It came as the Securities and Exchange Commission rewrites rules governing trading and the NYSE's chief executive officer, John Thain, develops a hybrid market to mesh electronic and manual trading - changes that may undermine the NYSE's 80% market share in its listed stocks...
NYSE seat prices have plunged 35% in a year, and by more than half since their August 1999 peak of $2.65 million... (Bloomberg)
