What are specialists in current times doing on the NYSE floor?

I was wondering what the specialists on the NYSE floor are doing presently. Why are they still there? Is it just for show or is there some solid reason?

I think some commodities are still pit-traded although there are only a few, but why have market-makers on the floor when all trades are going through electronically? Are there still people who place a phone call to a broker and then expect a specialist to execute the trade on the floor?

tried google yet?

http://www.nyse.com/pdfs/specialistmagarticle.pdf

Tried actually reading my post yet?

keywords "presently," "still there," "why have MM on floor when trades going through electronically" I am asking why there are still people on the floor, not what a specialist does, and you quoted me an article that has opinions on specialists from Lehman Brothers board members, and still says that 80% of trading liquidity happens on the floor.

Please read the question and know what you are posting before referring someone to an irrelevant and outdated article on Google.

Jesus...sorry for not reading your post right.

If I were you I would just ask "skenobi". Off the few ex-bank traders we have on this board, he´s the most "accessible". I suppose he knows this stuff first hand.

From my understanding, specialists are on the floor mainly to represent large sell/buy side financial institutions. They are there to:

1. Execute large orders;
2. to market and promote their portfolio's assets;
3. to gain any informational edge on what other institutions are doing;
4. if they are brokers to market themselves on TV; and
5. to network.

As far as my understanding goes, it is dominated by institutions. They all have an agenda.

Few individuals exist on the floor.

I tried Google on that Unbelievable but there's still open outcry trading floors, even in London.
It baffles me why it's better to gather and negotiate prices every day, but hey, we need those old fashioned things, in this plastic world ... full coffee, live music and pit trading never goes out of style!

Interesting question. Perhaps it's more than the scenario when you go shopping on the streets not in front of the computer.
But isn't it the floor guys driving and pumping all markets? Without online traders there's no big deal but just imagine without them?

It may also be more interesting to imagine floor traders as table gamblers, while online ones are jackpot rollers.

Split Unit's response is the closest to what is going on at current. If you watch CNBC or Bloomberg and they show the traders on the NYSE floor they are doing a wide
variety of different things.

1. Placing orders - even though they are electronically input on their devices.
2. Making and Taking calls
3. Digesting news, gossiping and getting an edge from one another.
4. Showing a face for TV - as Split mentioned. Promotion.

Who does this benefit? Large cap trader's and institutions. There are few indies still around.

Yet seats held on the exchange have been so for years and there needs to be someone down there "representing" as it were.

There are still a variety of commodity pits, they have different and shorter hours than what FX market makers or even the NYSE has.

Gold for instance is still traded in the "pit" via open outcry.

In the old days if you wanted into the pit trading game, even just as a runner, or someone taking phonecalls, etc. all you had to do was have a friend of a friend
and you'd be working in days, no fancy Ivy league degree in business or economics needed. Not so anymore.

Now that electronic placement is taking over, eventually all the pits and even the NYSE floor will eventually be closed.
I would imagine the NYSE will remain where it is, being a centralized location for trading.

Here "below" are the hours for Gold and Oil futures trading, Notice Open Outcry or "The Pit" = 8:20 AM EST to 1:30 PM EST hence the term "I'm a daytrader"

Just for fun some "pit" traders and a related article.


The Days of the Pits are Numbered