New York has been supplanted by London as the number one financial market in the World. If you think number two is the lowest position that New York can move to, you better think again.
I have been an unofficial advisor to several exchanges over the past 20+ years. Some of these parties have come back to me recently, trying to understand what logic is supporting the destruction of the US' markets by its own regulators. I had to look at the numbers of listings, the numbers of employees on the physical floors, and much more to see that the decision was made many years ago to first, marginalize, then fundamentally alter how our exchanges function, or even if they will be allowed to continue to exist.
The NYSE recently announced it was closing two of its four trading floors, reducing employees on the floor from 3600+ to about 2000. There has not only been a drop in the number of new listings on the NYSE, but a drop in the number of quality markets made there.
The AMEX has gone down to a membership of only an estimate 750 full members, who now own the Exchange. A significant number of the AMEX companies have effectively been turned into shells by trading away from the Exchange, not to mention wholesale naked shorting and counterfeiting hitting their stocks.
So where does this all end up? I will bet that the regulators will ultimately shut down the floors, putting all stocks on electronic markets controlled by market makers, effectively deciding the competitive issue of auction vs market maker markets without any other input on the matter. Better yet, they will probably come up with some frucacta rigged, non-controlled studies supporting their actions.
I am not an interested party in these matters, but I have many friends on these floors from my days as a trader, and from my professional work since. At this point, I expect these units will be intentionally withered on the vine until, when the time is right, they will be simply shut down entirely.
Thus will come to an end competitive markets and the implied health of such multiple alternative systems. And the victims here will go silently into the night like lambs to the slaughter.
Will the listed companies who will have their fundamental markets altered without their informed consent benefit? The bets of informed foreign players is that this will most definitely NOT be the case. I am with the foreign players on this one.
In contract process, there are three so-called guiding principles of a good contract: One, there must be guaranteed specific performance; Two, there must be mutually binding fidiciary duties; and Three, there must be informed consent by both parties to alter any contract between the parties.
This process fails on all three counts. I am afraid that, like the Global War on Terror, we, the American people, are going to lose this one, without our ever having been consulted. That is laying a great foundation for some very rude change. Unfortunately, like the enemy of the GWOT, our enemy here thinks they are immune from any accountability for the outcome of their actions. LET'S MAKE THAT THE "BAD DECISION".
I think we are on a fast track to lose the GWOT, so why would this be any different. We are England just before WWI. Only a united American people can have even a small hope of altering these outcomes.