纽交所为什么对电子交易若即若离

    股票市场交易员差点不得不在桑迪飓风肆虐的时候继续工作。

    上周日一整天，纽约证交所（New York Stock Exchange）都表示，虽然交易所的交易大厅将关闭，但股票交易将继续通过电子方式进行。这种情形与10年多前形成了极大的反差：911事件之后，纳斯达克（NASDAQ）和其他电子交易系统本可重新开市，但纽约证交所时任首席执行官迪克•格拉索几乎是在威逼它们继续闭市。这一次，纽约证交所看起来似乎已经打定主意，要证明十多来来在新泽西州马瓦规划和建设一个数据中心的努力没有白费。

    然而，随后就没声了。周一纽约证交所一切交易关闭，周二仍将闭市。

    不清楚确切原因是什么。现在我们不知道，但交易专家们似乎确信，股市本可正常运转，周一只需关闭交易大厅。“股票交易绝对应当立即开始，”市场科技咨询公司TABB Group的亚当•苏斯曼说。“他们最终决定关闭电子交易，让我有些意外。”

    周日晚6点，纽约证交所、纳斯达克和其他交易系统的官员们与华尔街公司的一些交易负责人举行了电话会议。据报道，华尔街公司称它们无法在短时间内做好准备，对必须因此而出行的员工安全表示担忧。美国证券交易委员会（Securities and Exchange Commission）可能也施加了一些压力。不过，正式宣布股市闭市大概是4个小时左右之后的事了。

    但这并没有阻止华尔街公司的债券交易员进公司交易。瑞信（Credit Suisse）的一名股票衍生品交易员表示，通常有600人的公司股票交易室周一大约有10个人。债券交易员大多在办公室。

    制订一系列应急方案时，这些毕业于哈佛（Harvard）等名牌大学的MBA们总会有人想到将飓风包括在内。而且，市场科技专家们表示，很多华尔街公司有能力让交易员在家登陆公司网络，进行股票买卖。

    另一个数据点：纽约证交所的股票交易执行负责人常驻芝加哥。因此，即便天气晴朗，他也不在纽约，而且在大多数时候，这种方式似乎也可行。

    过去5年左右，股票交易一直在从纽约证交所流出。大约40%的股票交易从未通过纽交所进行交易。其余的股票交易有很大一部分也是在其他地方完成的，在经纪公司的计算机系统或其他竞争性电子交易系统中撮合后，递送至纽约证交所的系统，纳入统计。尽管如此，过去几年已经证明，其他系统也可以像纽约证交所一样高效地进行股票交易。

    你或许会说，最近股票交易出差错的事件增加正是股票交易流出纽约证交所的结果。但最近骑士（Knight）的交易灾难就是发生在在纽约证交所上市的股票上，看起来纽约证交所在终止交易差错上的表现也并不比别人出色。而且，就算有人可能希望这样，我们也绝不不可能再回到所有股票交易都通过面对面交易进行的时代。

    但纽约证交所的竞争优势之一就是，它还拥有实际的交易大厅。这不是一个很大的优势，但依然算得上是一个优势。“如今，纽约证交所的主要工作就是电视演播室，”克里斯多夫•纳吉说。

    而且即便纽约证交所迫切地希望证明，它能够在新的交易时代下进行竞争，众多其他的市场参与者正在按自己的方式不断扩张。市场的进一步分裂更可能让新兴的高频交易公司获益，而不是摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley）或高盛（Goldman Sachs）等公司。美国证券交易委员会在监管电子市场方面已经落后太多，它当然也不希望看到纽约证交所对市场现有的影响力逐步下降。

    但是纽约证交所愿意赌一把，相信全电子交易能给业务带来更多的裨益，胜过保持其神秘性带来的优势。华尔街其他有影响力的市场参与者和监管机构可不愿意打这样的赌。

    译者：杨智

    Stock market traders nearly had to work through Hurricane Sandy.

    All day Sunday, the New York Stock Exchange said that while the exchange's floor would be closed, stock trading would go on, electronically. It was a stark contrast from a little over a decade ago, when then NYSE CEO Dick Grasso basically bullied the NASDAQ and other electronic trading venues to stay closed in the wake of 9/11 when they probably could have re-opened on their own. This time the NYSE seemed determined to prove that more than a decade of planning and the construction of a fortified facility in Mahwah, New Jersey, had been worth it.

    Then nothing. The market was closed on Monday for all trading, and it will stay closed on Tuesday.

    It's not exactly clear why. We won't know now, but trading experts seem convinced that the market could have functioned normally with the actual exchange closed on Monday. "Stock trading could absolutely be operating right now," says Adam Sussman of market technology consulting firm TABB Group. "I'm kind of surprised they decided not to trade electronically."

    On Sunday at 6 P.M., officials from the NYSE, the Nasdaq and other exchanges held a conference call with the heads of trading at the major Wall Street firms. Reportedly, the Wall Street firms said they couldn't be ready on short notice, and were concerned about the well-being of their employees who would have to travel. The Securities and Exchange Commission probably applied some pressure as well. Still, it took another four hours or so for stock trading to officially be called off.

    But that didn't stop the Wall Street firms from having their bond traders come in. An equity derivatives trader at Credit Suisse said there were about 10 people in the office on Monday on the firm's equity trading floor out of a normal 600. Debt traders were mostly in the office.

    And when creating a list for contingency planning, you have to think that at least one of those Harvard MBAs would have thought to include hurricanes. What's more, market technology experts say that a number of Wall Street firms have the capacity to allow their traders to buy and sell stocks over the firm's networks from home.

    Another data point: The NYSE's head of stock trading execution is based in Chicago. So even on a clear day he's not in New York, and on most days that seems to work out fine.

    In the past half decade or so, stock trading has been moving away from the NYSE. About 40% of stock trades never pass through the exchange. A good percentage of the rest are completed elsewhere, crossed in the computer systems of brokerage firms, or other competing electronic trading venues, but are routed through the NYSE's system, so they get counted. Nonetheless, what the last few years have proven is that others can do stock trading just as efficiently as the NYSE.

    You can argue that the recent increase in stock trading glitches is a result of this movement away from the NYSE. But Knight's recent trading disaster happened in NYSE stocks, so it's not like the NYSE is doing a better job of stopping trading glitches. And while some may wish it, we are never going back to system where all stocks are traded face-to-face.

    The one competitive advantage, though, the NYSE still has is the actual trading floor. It's not that big of an advantage, but it's something. "The NYSE is mainly a TV studio these days," says Christopher Nagy.

    And even if the NYSE is desperate to prove that it can compete in the new era of trading, a number of other market participants are investing in keeping things the way they are. A further fracturing of the market probably would benefit upstart high-frequency trading firms more than Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs. The SEC, too, which is already woefully behind in policing electronic markets, doesn't want whatever grasp on the market the NYSE still has, to fade away.

    Still, the NYSE was willing to make the bet that proving it could operate fully electronically would be a better boon for its business than maintaining the mystique that the floor gives it some advantage. Other Wall Street's power players and regulators weren't willing to make that bet.