Traders dial from floor today

Bill Higgins, a f1oor trader at the New York Stock Exchange, finally can end his ritual of running to pay phones 50 times a day.

Starting today, Higgins is one of the first Big Board traders to have a private phone line connected to the outside world.

Article from USA TODAY June 17, 1982 below


Traders dial from floor today

By Daniel Kadlec
USA TODAY

NEW YORK - Bill Higgins, a f1oor trader at the New York Stock Exchange, finally can end his ritual of running to pay phones 50 times a day.

Starting today, Higgins is one of the first Big Board traders to have a private phone line connected to the outside world. Up to now, major brokerage firms nixed attempts by independent traders - such as Higgins - who tried to install outside lines. That meant the traders had to leave the NYSE floor to speak directly to clients.

The Securities and Exchange Commission ruled last month that the NYSE must let floor traders install outside lines, effective today. So far, 24 traders have applied for them.

The old system required clients to call a broker with an order to buy or sell. The broker passed the order through bureaucratic channels until it reached the trader on the floor of the exchange.

Large NYSE brokerages the Merrill Lynches and Paine Webbers - wanted to keep things that way. They said letting clients and traders talk directly could mean losing a piece of the action. The traders countered that direct communication would give clients faster trades.

The end of the six-year battle of the phones doesn't mean individual investors will be dialing up their traders on the f1oor: It's mostly the big money crowd whose calls will be welcomed. On the street, though, passersby may finally get a shot at using the pay phones that stand at the corner of Broad and Wall Streets.