
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 15, 1990                   TAG: 9006150119
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

STOCKS AROUND THE CLOCK ABOUT TO BREAK TRADITION

For the first time in its nearly 200-year history, The New York Stock Exchange will begin this year trading after its normal hours and hopes to start trading during the night in 1991, exchange officials told brokerage firms Wednesday.

In another sharp break from tradition, some of the trading may bypass the stock exchange's specialists, the floor traders through whom all trades now are routed.

The plans, disclosed by people who have been briefed by exchange officials, are an attempt to regain trading volume in Big Board-listed stocks both from foreign markets, particularly London and Tokyo, as the world moves toward global, round-the-clock trading.

Sometime in 1991, the plans call for the exchange to conduct auctions of each Big Board stock at 8 p.m., midnight and 5 a.m. Each stock would trade only once, with all trades combined at whatever price could be agreed upon.

This year, at a date not yet chosen, the plans call for two after-hours sessions, with different rules from daytime trading.

It is estimated that about 15 million to 20 million shares of NYSE stocks are traded each day outside of Big Board hours, many of them overseas. The new proposals are an attempt to retrieve a substantial proportion of that volume.

The proposals must be approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, but its clearance seems likely. Wall Street executives said the SEC had urged the Big Board to find a way to trade during the night.

The after-hours trading, and the overnight auctions, would be conducted electronically and the floor would be deserted, according to the people who heard the Big Board briefing.

The National Association of Securities Dealers also has announced plans to begin trading Big Board issues during the early morning, when London's market is open, and commodity exchanges are developing an electronic trading system that would operate through the night, seeking business from both London and Tokyo.

by CNB