Wall Street Trading floor

[kork13]

I've been curious about this for a long time, and these 2 photos display it well...


The NYSE trading floor appears to be total CHAOS. And yet, its activities impact the movement of billions, if not trillions of dollars every day. How does it work? What is going on down there, and how does the chaos relate into the wild swings we've been seeing for the last week, and the retirement savings to which we all so devotedly contribute? Who's on the phones they're always on, what's on all the computer screens, how do they know what who is working with, and so on? It seems to be madness! Anybody have insight?

[Like2Plan]

kork13,
Despite owning a few stocks, I am kind of fuzzy on the details as well. I thought what was happening is someone offers a stock for sale and the other guys are making bids on the price. The guy who is selling takes one bid or the other... It does seem like complete choas to me as well. How in the world would anyone be able to keep up? How do they match the buyers and sellers? Maybe they aren't doing any of that at all. Maybe they playing rock paper scissors...

[noppenbd]

The guys on the floor are not stock brokers, they are exchange members, who act as conduits for orders placed through their member brokerage. Each listed stock trades at a specific location on the trading floor, where a "specialist broker" acts as matchmaker to buyers and sellers for each listed stock.

This page has a pretty good explanation:

Stocks Basics: How Stocks Trade

[Thrif-t]

[QUOTE=Like2Plan;185687]kork13,
Despite owning a few stocks, I am kind of fuzzy on the details as well. I thought what was happening is someone offers a stock for sale and the other guys are making bids on the price. The guy who is selling takes one bid or the other... It does seem like complete choas to me as well. How in the world would anyone be able to keep up? How do they match the buyers and sellers? Maybe they aren't doing any of that at all. Maybe they playing rock paper scissors...[/QUOTE]

[maat55]

kork13, Maybe they playing rock paper scissors...

Good one, that will take the sting out of loosing a few bucks.

[gamecock43]

I want to get a job playing rock paper scissors. I would be great at it!

[sweeps]

I want to get a job playing rock paper scissors. I would be great at it!

If they're playing rock paper scissors, what is the guy on the far right side of the 2nd picture (yellow shirt, wearing glasses) playing?

[maat55]

If they're playing rock paper scissors, what is the guy on the far right side of the 2nd picture (yellow shirt, wearing glasses) playing?

Maybe thats a savy way of getting noticed.

[Broken Arrow]

If they're playing rock paper scissors, what is the guy on the far right side of the 2nd picture (yellow shirt, wearing glasses) playing?

I just noticed. Hilarious!