Financial Managment IP 1 - Essay Example

The New York Stock Exchange houses many of the largest companies in the United States and trades around 1.5 billion shares each day across the United States and Europe. The companies listed on the stock exchange represent over seventy-five percent of the market share in the nation. Most of the trading is done on the floor of the exchange where specialists and floor traders provide related services. Specialists are the workers who have the responsibility of matching interested buyers to sellers.

Every specialist is responsible for certain shares. These specialists make sure that trading of the stocks and shares they are responsible for occurs in a fair, orderly, competitive, and efficient market. This ensures that all customers will have an equal and fair opportunity to buy shares while the seller receives the best possible price according to the market conditions present at that time. They also work to prevent any large and unjust fluctuations in the prices of the shares between consecutive sales.

The floor traders are the people present on the floor of the stock exchange waving their hands and making gestures to make trades. These are the members of the NYSE who trade for their own account, however they can serve as floor brokers for buyers and sell their services. Lastly the NYSE uses a SuperDOT system through which the specialists handle orders from brokers that are not on the floor. The system enables brokers to send messages through a common message switch to the proper specialist’s trading-floor workplace.

These specialists then handle the buying and selling of the selected shares and as they become available they send an acceptance using the same switch to the originating brokerage firms. The National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations uses three separate processes for the buying and selling of shares. These include the interface, the matching engine and the quote services. The interface electronically connects the buyers and sellers as they enter their trades with the brokers.

These trades then come into the NASDAQ system through hundreds of computers. The quote services provides up-to-date minute price quotes through its computers. Brokers then use these quotes for the people they deal with. Lastly the matching engine connects the buyers and sellers when the prices they offer match. Once this is done information is sent to the brokers of the buyer and seller who then complete the transaction. This information can also be seen through the quote services facility by any person interested in the transaction.

The process is not as simple as it seems because numerous transactions take place simultaneously, therefore thousands of computers and brokers are needed to complete every transaction. Both the New York Stock Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations sell shares of the companies listed on their exchanges. These organizations use brokers which help in connecting buyers and sellers. There is increase in the use of machines as both organizations have a highly developed computer system which speeds up the trading process and aids the buyer and seller to negotiate.

However as the name suggests NASDAQ is run mainly by machines where the interface connects the customers with each other and the matching engine finds suitable trades. On the other hand NYSE is still labour-oriented