'I feel disconnected from the world and from the market': NYSE floor trader

Ines Ferré
·Senior Business Reporter
Updated 2 min read
0

Traders accustomed to the bustling floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) are adapting to working from home after the NYSE temporarily closed the floor over coronavirus concerns and went fully electronic on Monday.

“I definitely feel very disconnected from the world and disconnected from the market,” Jonathan Corpina, Senior Managing Partner at Meridian Equity Partners, told Yahoo Finance’s “The First Trade” on Monday.

Sitting in a home office is not the same as the floor where “you can see the lights, you can hear the noise, you can hear the volume changing back-and-forth,” Corpina tells Yahoo Finance.

A man wears a protective mask as he walks past the New York Stock Exchange on the corner of Wall and Broad streets during the coronavirus outbreak in New York City, New York, U.S., March 13, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
A man wears a protective mask as he walks past the New York Stock Exchange on the corner of Wall and Broad streets during the coronavirus outbreak in New York City, New York, U.S., March 13, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

The 228-year old Big Board temporarily shut its iconic trading floor and went fully electronic after two individuals from the building tested positive for coronavirus, or COVID-19, last week. Since then, sources tell Yahoo Finance at least five other individuals from the floor have also tested positive for the virus.

‘We need you guys back’

During the closure, brokers who trade on behalf of clients do not have access to certain order types that can only be executed from the floor.

“We have seen over the last day or so, market share from the NYSE obviously has ticked lower without that broker volume in there, and that value added that we do add,” says Corpina.

NYSE executives assure the floor closure is temporary. President Stacey Cunningham tweeted this week, ”We look forward to the day when we re-open the Floor and welcome back to 11 Wall Street all of the Trading Floor community.”

Corpina and others also look forward to that day, though no one knows yet when it will come.

“I continue to talk to clients across the globe right now and they keep asking the same question: ‘We need you guys back. When are you going back?’” he added.

Ines covers the US stock market from the floor of the New York Exchange. Follow her on Twitter at @inesreports.

Read more:

‘This will kill the business’: Brokers sound off as coronavirus forces NYSE to go all electronic

A view from the trading floor: Algorithims having ‘outsized impact’ amid coronavirus impact

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