Electronic vs. Floor Based Trading

Specialists and floor brokers, in direct contact on the trading floor, are at the heart of operations at the national U.S. equity exchanges. At the other end of the spectrum, electronic trading platforms characterize most other equity markets globally. Why have we not followed the international trend, and should we? Can the unique services offered by the floor be provided as effectively in an electronic environment? Which environment would institutional and retail traders each find most suitable to their special needs? These are some of the questions that will be addressed. In so doing, Electronic vs. Floor Based Trading will provide perspective on the future direction that exchange market structure is likely to follow in the coming years.

Robert A. Schwartz is Marvin M. Speiser Professor of Finance and University Distinguished Professor in the Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, CUNY. Before joining the Baruch faculty in 1997, he was Professor of Finance and Economics and Yamaichi Faculty Fellow at New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business, where he had been a member of the faculty since 1965. Professor Schwartz received his Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University. His research is in the area of financial economics, with a primary focus on the structure of securities markets. He has published numerous journal articles and eleven books, including Equity Markets in Action: The Fundamentals of Liquidity, Market Structure and Trading, Wiley & Sons, 2004, and Reshaping the Equity Markets: A Guide for the 1990s, Harper Business, 1991 (reissued by Business One Irwin, 1993). He has served as a consultant to various market centers including the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, the London Stock Exchange, Instinet, the Arizona Stock Exchange, Deutsche Börse, and the Bolsa Mexicana. From April 1983 to April 1988, he was an associate editor of The Journal of Finance, and he is currently an associate editor of the Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, the Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies, and The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance & Business Ventures, and is a member of the advisory board of International Finance. In December 1995, Professor Schwartz was named the first chairman of Nasdaq's Economic Advisory Board, and he served on the EAB until Spring 1999.