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Ring My Bell

Stock markets hold a nostalgic place in the American psyche as a symbol of capitalism. The 228-year-old New York Stock Exchange has hosted generations of executives ringing the bell at IPOs and, to this day, still has traders shouting across its floors.

The NYSE had resisted closing down the floor this week —a key part of its brand and image — even as other exchanges around the US and abroad had shut their trading floors.

The exchange is responsible for 25% of US trade volume but still doesn’t have a way to electronically replicate the portion of end-of-day buying and selling, known as the closing auction. While floor brokers carry out those trades electronically, the process is still reliant on in-person interaction on the stock exchange floor.

Closing auctions have drawn an increasing share of daily trading volume over the past decade, in part as benchmarks for the popular low-fee ETFs and index funds, as well as numerous futures and options contracts.

Like many businesses in this environment, the NYSE will put its “business continuity” and digitization efforts to the test and hope there aren’t material risks – or stocks will likely move to other fully-digital exchanges...