For most of the world, the crisis that has hit financial markets has been an unmitigated disaster, devastating investors’ holdings, bankrupting many venerable institutions and trammeling the reputations of nearly everyone else. For the New York Stock Exchange, all the chaos and uncertainty, the anguish, fear and volatility — especially the volatility — has been a godsend.
For starters, the Big Board is once again in the center of the action, having recaptured its traditional role as the most important pricing mechanism for stocks. “They set the opening price, and that permits trading to flow through our systems,” concedes an executive at one rival market. “Many of our customers don’t want to direct trades through our system until they see how the opening shapes up, at least not in this volatility.”
This isn’t just about bragging rights....
