ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 16, 1996 TAG: 9601160053
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ROB WELLS ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Nasdaq Stock Market has completed a major computer-system upgrade, and market officials and member firms said Monday that it worked smoothly during last week's blizzard and record trading days this month.
The upgrade alleviates, for the time being, capacity problems that led to numerous breakdowns of the nation's second-largest stock market in 1994 and 1995, which operates via computers rather than with a traditional trading floor.
In addition, Nasdaq installed new mainframe computers at its computer centers in Rockville, Md., and Trumbull, Conn. Nasdaq market makers, the market's main dealers, were required to install Pentium-class computer work stations that met Nasdaq specifications on their trading floors.
The result is that Nasdaq can handle volume between 900 million and 1 billion shares a day, said Nasdaq spokesman Marc Beauchamp. The market already is planning for its next major upgrade, he said.
Until the recent upgrade, Nasdaq went on the blink after volume exceeded 450 million shares, which occurred numerous times in 1995 during the heavy rally in technology stocks.
Nasdaq survived two challenges last week: the blizzard; and its second-heaviest trading day on record, when volume hit 603.4 million shares Jan. 10. Nasdaq's all-time heaviest trading day came Jan. 4, when volume hit 629.9 million shares.
LENGTH: Short : 36 linesby CNB