Closing
Bell Rings For Exchange's Name
By MATT JARZEMSKY
And JACOB BUNGE
The name of the American
Stock Exchange, once among the most prominent stock markets in the
world, is going the way of ticker tape.
NYSE Euronext, NYX -0.63%
which bought the trading venue in 2008, said Thursday it will
change the name to NYSE MKT from NYSE Amex. For the first time in
decades, daily stock tables in The Wall Street Journal and
elsewhere will no longer list shares under an Amex
moniker.
The once-iconic institution
hasn't been a major player in the stock market for years and
captures just a slim portion of daily trading
volume.
Still, the switch marks the
elimination of another vestige of Wall Street's bygone days. Many
investors remember when market commentators would recount trading
on the exchange alongside the New York Stock Exchange and
Nasdaq.
"The Amex was a parallel
universe to the NYSE," said William Dailey, a securities lawyer
with Smith Gambrell & Russell LLP.
Amex traces its roots to
"curbstone brokers"—so named because they did business on the
street—in lower Manhattan in the 1800s. The New York Curb Market
Agency was formed in 1908 to coordinate the practices of such
traders, who made markets in the stocks of small, newly created
companies.
The market was renamed the
New York Curb Exchange in 1929. It adopted the American Stock
Exchange name in 1953 and launched an options market in 1975, but
continued to be known informally as "the Curb." In 1993, it listed
the world's first exchange-traded fund, the Standard & Poor's
Depositary Receipt.
The product, designed to
track the performance of the S&P 500, is currently the
most-traded ETF in the U.S., known as the SPDR S&P 500. But, in
an example of the Amex's declining prominence over the years, the
product now trades on NYSE's electronic Arca
Exchange.
The exchange's business of
listing companies has struggled with declining market share since
peaking decades ago. It became better-known as an options-trading
venue and is currently the No. 4 equity-options exchange by market
share. That business was a key draw when NYSE Euronext acquired
Amex for $260 million. NYSE Amex Options will continue to operate
under that name.
NYSE has invested in
upgrading the exchange's systems, but today Amex accounts for less
than 1% of total U.S. stock-trading volume, hurt by share gains by
newer exchanges such as that run by BATS Global Markets Inc., as
well as venues such as so-called dark pools, or private markets for
trading shares.
The new name will be
effective May 14.
"A venerable name is sadly
giving way to change," said Neal Wolkoff, who served as chief
executive of the Amex from 2005 until its
buyout.
Amex traces its roots to
"curbstone brokers"—so named because they did business on the
street—in lower Manhattan in the 1800s.
An NYSE spokesman said the
change reflects the fact that the exchange runs on the same
technology as NYSE Euronext's larger trading venue, the New York
Stock Exchange. He added that NYSE Euronext officials discussed the
potential change among themselves and with clients over the past
year and announced it as soon as regulatory approvals and filings
were ready.
Today, NYSE Amex serves as
NYSE Euronext's listing venue for "a broader class of companies
than are qualified for listing on NYSE," according to an NYSE
filing. Eight new listings have joined it this year, including
transportation and logistics-services provider Radiant Logistics
Inc. RLGT +0.91% and semiconductor company GigOptix Inc. GIG -3.14%
There were more than 450 issuers listed on the exchange at the end
of last year.
Not all market participants
were saddened by the news.
"The Amex and the New York
Stock Exchange have always been able to change over time—that's why
they've been here so long," said Doreen Mogavero, president of
Mogavero Lee & Co., a brokerage firm on the New York Stock
Exchange floor.
Ms. Mogavero worked as a
19-year-old clerk on the Amex floor in the mid-1970s, flashing hand
signals at traders to communicate the orders of customers on the
phone. Her father and husband both worked as Amex
traders.
"We all loved the place,"
Ms. Mogavero said, referring to the Amex trading floor. "Most of
the people who were there were very deep-rooted there. For what we
did, we were No. 1."
—William Power
contributed to this article.
Write to Matt Jarzemsky
at matthew.jarzemsky@dowjones.com and Jacob Bunge at
jacob.bunge@dowjones.com
Tale of the Tape |
Amex has a long history
January
2007: The AmericanStock Exchange hires Morgan Stanley
to advise on potential stock offering or
merger.
January
2005: Amex members buy the exchange from the National
Association of Securities Dealers.
October
2001: The Amex resumes trading under its own roof
after the Sept. 11 attacks. Amex's facilities were more damaged
than other markets.
June
1998: Amex members approve the proposed merger of
Amex with the National Association of Securities Dealers, which
also runs the Nasdaq Stock Market.
January
1993: The first exchange-traded funds, Standard &
Poor's Depositary Receipts, or SPDRs, debut on
Amex.
1953:
The New York Curb Exchange changes its name to the American Stock
Exchange.
1921: The New York Curb
Market moves indoors to a building on Greenwich Street in lower
Manhattan.
1908:
The New York Curb Market Agency is established and codifies trading
practices for what would become the predecessor of
Amex.
Source: WSJ research,
NYSE Euronext, State Street Global
Advisors
