Traders Magazine
By Lou Pastina, Global Markets Advisory Group
Gary Gensler, the newly minted Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, testified recently that he will seek a deep dive into the market structure of the United States Equity Markets.
My question is, does anyone really care anymore?
It was early in the new millennium that the Commission – fresh from Nasdaq scandals and the introduction of competition with new alternative trading systems – enacted Regulation NMS. Buy side traders were tired of being traded ahead of and Sell side desks were tired of paying huge commissions to Specialists on the floor of the NYSE, especially when they felt that they were being sometimes “pennied” by Specialists. The Commission, fed up with the NYSE’s entrenched positions, determined that a fundamental overhaul was needed. The resulting regulations essentially sowed the seeds of today’s modern markets.