NEW YORK, June 22 (UPI) -- Floor traders at the New York Stock Exchange appear to be losing a tug-of-war with institutional investors as the NYSE considers automatic order execution.
The Big Board is mulling a proposal to let investors execute more stock orders automatically, bypassing floor traders, in a big expansion of its drive to become more efficient, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
Though opposed by floor traders, big institutional investors favor the proposal because they consider the 212-year-old exchange slow and inefficient.
The actual proposal follows a more-modest one announced early this year that is awaiting approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The earlier plan allows investors' buy and sell orders of any size to be electronically matched, so long as, at that moment, the prices at which stock can be bought or sold are the most attractive in the market. Current rules permit such automatic executions only of small stock orders.
The current proposal would let buyers and sellers choose automatic execution not only at the so-called best price, but also at either up to 5 cents or several price quotes above or below that best price.
