Subject: [NEXTEL-1] NYSE to Allow Cell Phones for Outside Communication

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 09:00:53 -0400

NYSE to Allow Cell Phones for Outside Communication
Mon May 12, 4:03 PM ET

By Nicole Maestri

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The din of trading stocks on the New York Stock
Exchange (news - web sites) floor will soon be punctuated by traders using
their cell phones to talk to their clients.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (news - web sites) has
approved an NYSE rule change that will allow the use of cell phones on its
already noisy and frenetic trading floor to reach customers not on the NYSE
floor, reversing a prior ban on use of phones for that purpose, an NYSE
spokeswoman said on Monday.

Floor brokers, who execute trades on the exchange floor, will be able to dial
out to and get calls from their customers using NYSE authorized and issued
cell phones. The cell phones will be introduced through a six-month pilot
program, but the exchange has not yet set a date to start the trial, the
spokeswoman said.

Until now, the NYSE did not allow cell phones on its floor to dial to outside
clients. Floor brokers had to scurry between posts where specialists stand
on the exchange floor managing the buying and selling of shares, and a
phone at their firms' booth on the edge of the floor to communicate with
customers or with their firm's trading desks.

Time spent away from the crowd near the specialist meant the broker could
possibly miss out on the latest trading action.

"I think it's a good thing," said Todd Leone, head of listed trading at S.G.
Cowen, of the introduction of cell phones. "It'll help the customers talking to
the guys directly on the floor."

Now floor brokers will be able to call any of their customers, including
mutual funds or hedge funds, and receive calls from those customers while
still standing in the crowd near the specialist. The floor broker will be able to
tell a client the status of their order or provide their customer with a "market
look" -- observations about how a particular stock is trading.

The approval did cause worry among some traders.

"I just think it's going to create chaos down at the (specialist) post," said
one trader who asked not to be named. "To still have order flow come
through the booths and then out to the broker is a more orderly way to have
this happen."

The NYSE said floor brokers would be able to take customer orders on the
cell phone but would have to enter them into an electronic system to make
sure there is an audit trail available for the order.

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