New York Stock Exchange To Reopen Trading Floor On May 26 With 'New Safety Measures'

Shut down March 23 by the COVID-19 infections of two people, the physical trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) will reopen May 26 but with “vital new safety measures."

NYSE president Stacey Cunningham said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed the exchange will only reopen its facility to “a subset of floor brokers" while most of the rest will continue working remotely. She said floor brokers will return in small numbers first and will be required to wear protective masks on the historic trading floor.

On the other hand, the majority of traders “designated market makers” that oversee trading of 2,200 NYSE-listed companies will continue to work remotely.

"Bringing our physical trading floor back online will begin the process of returning the NYSE to the highest level of service for investors and listed companies," she said. "This is important because stocks trade better when the floor is open, with reduced volatility and fairer prices."

Cunningham admitted the reopened floor "will look different from the iconic images so many have grown accustomed to seeing televised throughout the trading day."

In addition to these precautions, NYSE will require all brokers and visitors to avoid public transportation. All brokers and visitors will be temperature screened at the entrance.

“Working under these conditions won’t be easy,” Cunningham pointed out. “It will require substantial commitment, from those on our floor and all Americans keeping the economy afloat.”

NYSE has only been doing all-electronic trading since March 23 after a trader and an employee tested positive for COVID-19. This was the first time the physical trading floor of the Big Board has been shut independently while electronic trading continued.

Its switch to all-digital trading didn't have a huge downside since the bulk of transactions now takes place electronically and away from the physical floor of the Big Board.

Closed March 23 were the NYSE equities trading floor and the NYSE American Options trading floor in New York, and the NYSE Arca Options trading floor in San Francisco.

“We implemented a number a number of safety precautions over the past couple of weeks, and starting on Monday this week we started pre-emptive testing of employees and screening of anyone who came into the building,” said Cunningham at the time. “If that screening warranted additional testing, we tested people and they were sent home and not given access to the building. A couple of those test cases have come back positive.”

The change affected the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average and the benchmark S&P 500, which still relies on an army of traders working the floor to carry out transactions. The other major U.S. stock exchange, the NASDAQ Composite, does not have a physical trading floor and is 100% electronic.