The Innovation is the Exchange Itself!

Send us Fan MailChris Cornette, a longtime securities trader who grew up in the business, reveals how the most important innovation that made US capital markets preeminent in the world was the exchange itself.• Cornette's father worked in the P&S (Purchase and Sales) department on Wall Street, eventually becoming the controller of an American Stock Exchange specialist unit• The original Buttonwood Agreement from 1792 created exclusivity among traders that helped establish trust in the market• Exchange specialists subsidized trading in small-cap stocks using profits they made from large-cap stocks• The phrase "your word is your bond" wasn't just a saying but the foundation of the trading system. Exclusion from the exchange was enough of a threat to discipline bad actors• Specialists would ensure market liquidity and "continuity" in pricing, preventing wild price swings• The transition to electronic trading and decimal pricing in the late 1990s fundamentally changed market dynamics• High-frequency trading firms don't have the same ethical obligations that floor traders did• The number of publicly traded companies has declined significantly since the move to screen-based trading• Self-regulation through the exchange helped create trust that made markets function effectively. Not perfectly, but effectively.If you have questions or comments, or want to suggest a future topic, email the show at [email protected] !You can follow Mike Munger on Twitter at @mungowitz