CDS pool deep, cross-Atlantic rules may vary-execs (Reuters) Excerpt:

Top executives of the exchanges vying to clear credit derivatives say there is room for several to succeed, and they expect to deal with different regulators in different regions as the global market evolves. …

… Garry Jones, NYSE Euronext’s head of global derivatives, said it is very likely there will be different CDS regulatory solutions in Europe and the United States. “It is so complicated that it is impossible to bring in a global solution at this stage,” he said.

Autism Speaks Celebrates Second Annual World Autism Awareness Day with an Array of International Events on April 2; New York Stock Exchange Bell-Ringing, Yoko Ono Lennon Event at the UN, and “Walk on the Web” Highlight Global Autism Awareness Activities (PR Web) Excerpt:

Autism Speaks, the world’s largest autism science and advocacy organization, today announced a series of national and international events to mark the second annual celebration of World Autism Awareness Day, a global effort to heighten awareness about a disorder affecting millions of individuals and families around the world. WAAD is a result of a resolution passed unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly in 2008, making autism one of only three health issues to be recognized by the UN with its own “day.” The April 2 events will take place on multiple continents and in venues ranging from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to the United Nations and the Worldwide Web.

Autism Speaks Co-Founders Bob and Suzanne Wright, together with Autism Speaks Board Member Alison Niederauer - who has a son on the autism spectrum and is the wife of NYSE Euronext CEO Duncan Niederauer - will join other families affected by autism to kick off World Autism Awareness Day (WAAD) at the New York Stock Exchange, where they will ring the opening bell for the second consecutive year.

The Great Fire of 1835 (The Bowery Boys: New York City History) Excellent blog post with illustrations, and even better podcast; excerpt:

The Great Fire of 1835 devastated the city during one freezing December evening, destroying hundreds of buildings and changing the face of Manhattan forever. It underscored the city’s need for a functioning water system and permanent fire department. So why were there so many people drinking champagne in the street?

Hope your Monday has not been not too manic. Will be traveling the next day and a half, so posting here will be a little quiet.

From Scott Cutler: With all the buzz about Bernanke’s comments on 60 Minutes last night, you may not have seen the Reuters article outlining some of the NYSE’s efforts with emerging growth companies. While the NYSE is proud that it lists some of the largest and best-known companies in the world, few are aware that some of the fastest-growing brands and companies list here too (think Netezza, RackSpace, NetSuite, K12 and 3Par, among others). In fact, about a third of NYSE-listed companies have a market cap of less than $1 billion.

The NYSE is committed to emerging growth companies and has recently added a new listing standard to better target this vibrant group. Historically, companies qualified for the NYSE under an income, valuation with cash flow or pure valuation standard, which enabled a small number of emerging growth companies to list on the NYSE. The new standard is based on an assets and equity test and doesn’t have an income or revenue component. In particular, it requires IPOs to have at least $150mm market capitalization, $75mm assets and $50mm stockholders’ equity, among other requirements, and the assets and equity are pro forma for the IPO proceeds.

This new standard enables a large group of high-quality technology, cleantech and biotech companies to list directly on the NYSE for the first time. In fact, approximately 70 percent of IPO candidates could now be eligible for a NYSE listing, as opposed to 30 percent under our previous standards. In addition to positive feedback from clients, we have received tremendously positive feedback from the venture capital community. This new standard not only provides a choice of market for their portfolio companies, but also access to the NYSE’s exceptional visibility and branding opportunities, services and network for its emerging growth companies.

So while the IPO market may be slow for now, we are busier than ever spreading the word about this new opportunity. If you see us on the road, come up and say hello. Your company may indeed be eligible to list on the NYSE!

From Scott Cutler: This week has been exciting not only because the market (as I type) is up 8% since Friday, but because NYSE Amex listed not one, but two Chinese companies in the last five days.

NIVS IntelliMedia Technology Group, Inc. (NYSE Amex: NIV) opened for trading today following Monday’s listing of China Green Agriculture, Inc. (NYSE Amex: CGA). China Green was the first company from Mainland China to list on the new NYSE Amex market since they became part of our family last fall and NIVS is the first Chinese company to raise capital and list.

Small and medium enterprises have seen increased difficulty in their ability to raise funds due to the global financial crisis. We see a partnership with NYSE Amex as part of the solution. A listing here offers significant opportunities for companies to establish a presence in the international capital market, access more investors and be associated with a global brand. For a small company, NYSE Amex’s DMM model with obligated liquidity providers offers even more assurances for executives and investors. We are also uniquely positioned to work with Chinese companies on the ground through our Beijing office.

NYSE Euronext has 69 companies listed from Greater China, 13 of which call NYSE Amex home. We look forward to welcoming many more.

From Jim Ross: A critical element of MatchPoint’s order opacity is order control. Just because an order is anonymous and non-displayed it does not mean that the order is not vulnerable to information leakage, slippage or market impact. To make order opacity effective, a market participant must also retain constant control over how an order is handled and executed within a dark pool.

MatchPoint addresses order control on a number of levels. Limit prices, minimum trade sizes, internal matching, and portfolio list and cash constraints extend significant order control to MatchPoint users WITHIN the matching engine itself. In addition, MatchPoint’s “Fast Match” process reduces the match processing time down to 3-5 seconds so that users can have near real-time access to cancel or edit their orders. This order control works equally well for algorithms as it does for portfolio and block users.

If you do not know where your orders are, how they are being handled or are not able to control them, then they will get into trouble. Instead send them over to MatchPoint: a clean, well-lit place where you will know what your orders are doing and be able to manage them effectively.

With MatchPoint, your orders will grow up and become best executions in no time!!!

Three items of particular interest in the March Traders Magazine:

A First: NYSE Pays for Liquidity

[Options] Exchanges Divided Over Breakpoints

Sponsored Access Comes of Age

Happy Friday, folks!

Today in NYSE History
13 March 1967 –To speed transmission of market data, the NYSE began deleting volume figures from the tape when the ticker ran two minutes late.

Nasdaq’s Greifeld said: “If it’s properly conceived and properly executed, (the uptick rule) certainly can provide some psychological benefit for the market.
– Reuters 12 March (sorry, no link available)

Gosh, that sounds familiar. Where have I heard that before? Oh wait it was here:

Duncan Niederauer, CEO of NYSE Euronext, would like to see the Securities and Exchange Commission reinstate the uptick rule for short sales, even if it’s mainly for the sake of bucking up “investor psychology.”
– Traders magazine on 5 March, quoting Duncan speaking on 3 March

Yes, yes, that was it — investor psychology. I thought maybe there was an echo in here.

Apart from that bit of deja vu, I was struck by the following:

Here’s Mr. Greifeld on 2 Oct. 2008, as quoted by Reuters, calling for single-stock “circuit breakers” instead of an uptick rule:

“The uptick rule … would be in the marketplace all day every day having a negative effect on the fairness and efficiency of the marketplace,” Greifeld told issuers and media on the call.

Then here’s SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro yesterday, 11 March, quoted by Associated Press via Yahoo! Finance:

Dramatic changes in the global economy may merit restoring a federal rule aimed at preventing a massive plunge in a stock price caused by a rush of short sellers, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday.

SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said “hopefully” by next month the agency will open for public comment a proposal to reinstate the so-called uptick rule.

And finally here’s Mr. Greifeld yesterday, to quote the Reuters article more completely:

Nasdaq’s Greifeld said: “If it’s properly conceived and properly executed, (the uptick rule) certainly can provide some psychological benefit for the market.

“But the uptick rule as it existed in the past does not apply in the post-decimalization world,” he said. Decimalization has made the prices of stocks more specific, complicating any new uptick rule.

Greifeld said he doesn’t expect a reinstatement of the uptick rule to have an impact on trading volumes.

Gotta go now, I haven’t had breakfast. Suddenly I’m thinking of waffles.

I don’t actually know whether today’s rally had anything to do with talk of restoring some version of the “uptick rule,” which is a restriction on short selling in downward-moving markets. Correlation, causation, who cares — I’ll take today’s rally and leave the analysis to the experts.

There still are some people regarded as experts, yes?

I do know that our CEO Duncan Niederauer has been on a reinstate-the-uptick-rule campaign since last fall. Last Sept. 24, he spoke in a Webcast to listed companies about his conversations with the SEC, advocating the rule’s return. Another financial leader calling for the rule’s reinstatement has been Charles Schwab.

Most recently, Duncan talked about it last week at the Museum of American Finance, saying in part: “If the question is, ‘Would people think it’s a fairer game if we had an uptick rule?’ the answer is, ‘Yes.’”

http://exchanges.nyse.com/archives/2009/03/renews.php. Tomorrow, he speaks at a summit of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and I suspect it again will be a topic of conversation.

But what got all the talk going today was Rep. Barney Frank saying that the SEC will revisit the issue. Here are the reports on MarketWatch, Reuters and TheStreet.com, just to pick three of the first reports I saw.

More to come. Your views, as always, are welcome.

From Scott Cutler: Today marks the first day of “when issued” trading for Time Warner Inc.’s (NYSE: TWX) spin-off distribution of its ownership interest of Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC). Unlike an initial public offering, a spin is unique because the market has the ability to get an early feel for how the companies will trade after the transaction. Both NYSE and NYSE Amex consistently use when-issued trading which benefits both the investors and the listed companies.

Beginning two days prior to the established record date of the spin and continuing through the distribution date of the shares, the Designated Market Maker and other market participants work to establish the correct valuation for the newly formed companies. The ability for the bankers and the market makers and the broker/dealer representatives to communicate with each other and work together to determine the appropriate trading price makes this process as seamless as possible for everyone. The markets that don’t use when-issued trading are overly susceptible to hiccups on the day of distribution and after.

I would argue that our 99% capture rate of spin-offs from NYSE listed companies reinforces the value-add of a when-issued market, and I predict that we will see more spins as well as carve-outs and divestitures in the coming months. Similar to spins, the NYSE has a lot of experience with carve-outs as evidenced by the recent carve-out of Mead Johnson Nutrition from Bristol-Myers Squibb. There are many conglomerates looking at their portfolio of assets to determine whether they are getting full credit for the value of those assets within the group or if they would be better valued as stand-alone entities. While the current economic environment is tough, it also offers opportunities. Those that go early in the cycle will have great potential to build a solid investor base and to maximize the value of their portfolios.

Four bits of news today from these parts:

• Barclays Capital agrees to acquire the portfolio of NYSE Designated Market Maker (DMM) assignments of Bear Wagner Specialists. Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of Barclays Bank PLC, has agreed to acquire the portfolio of NYSE DMM assignments of Bear Wagner Specialists LLC, a subsidiary of J.P. Morgan.

• Successful launch of NYSE Arca Europe — NYSE Euronext European customers will be able, through one single connection to its new state-of-the-art technology trading platform, to have access to trade in stocks listed on its European cash regulated markets in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Portugal as well as blue-chips stocks from certain European countries via NYSE Arca Europe.

NYSE Arca Europe operates on NYSE Euronext’s next-generation Universal Trading Platform. Recently introduced for its European equities markets, the Universal Trading Platform delivers latency of between 150-400 microseconds and has the capacity to handle 100,000 orders per second.

In addition to ultra-low latency, NYSE Arca Europe boasts an innovative pricing model that has been developed in close cooperation with clients. The MTF charges a low flat fee of 0.15 basis points. In addition, there will be an additional volume incentive for members that are active on NYSE Arca Europe.

• NYSE Euronext Announces Trading Volumes for February 2009 NYSE Euronext today announced trading volumes for its global cash equities and derivatives exchanges for February 2009. Among other products:total NYSE-listed consolidated (Tape A) average daily volume increased 59.1% to 6.3 billion shares. Year-to-date, Tape A consolidated ADV is 30.2% above the prior year period.

• China Green Agriculture Celebrates First Day of Trading on NYSE Amex — Xi’an, China-based China Green Agriculture, today opened for trading under ticker symbol “CGA”. China Green Agriculture is the first company from Mainland China to list on the new NYSE Amex market since NYSE Euronext’s acquisition of the former American Stock Exchange, and the first Chinese company to list on NYSE Euronext markets in 2009.

As a reminder, the enhanced handling of Market on Close and Limit on Close orders starts this Monday. These changes are designed to attract stabilizing liquidity to NYSE-listed issues with significant imbalances at the end of the trading day.

As you know, I don’t run all these notices, but I thought this one merited a little extra attention.

Here is a blog post that summarized the changes. Note, they were originally planned for last December but were postponed to give customers more time to code the changes. Here’s the re-schedule notice from last month, and today’s reminder memo, which includes a link to the related regulatory notice.

So ends a long day ending a long week. Take heart. This week we spring (our clocks) ahead in the U.S. It’s supposed to hit 60 here in New York. It’s been a long, cold, lonely winter (OK, maybe not lonely, but work with me) but here comes the sun. It’s all right.

Here’s a photo my local paper posted recently of the ice breaking up on the Hudson. Little darlin’, I feel that ice is slowly melting.

Feel better now?

I didn’t think so.

Have a good weekend anyway.

Today in NYSE History
06 March 1975 — The NYSE initiated the spin-off of the Depository Trust Company, transferring ownership to its users.