The final day of trading on the PCX' Los Angeles equities trading floor will be Friday, May 25. The Exchange's equities floor in San Francisco will remain open beyond the May 25 date, but is scheduled to close by the end of the year. The Archipelago Exchange should begin trading operations in the summer. The PCX options floor in San Francisco is unaffected by the migration to Archipelago.
"Our lease on the Los Angeles facilities was extended to June 30 after we concluded the agreement with Archipelago," said Philip D. DeFeo, PCX Chairman and CEO. "With Archipelago's technology, there is no reason to extend it further and tie our traders to a specific, centralized location, which they do not need, physically or financially, and which adds no value to the process of executing investors' orders.
"There's a critical distinction here," DeFeo continued. "We are closing down our trading floors, not our equities business. We are committed to the business of trading stocks and other equities products, but in an environment that is more cost-effective and more flexible. We are taking advantage of technological developments that will improve the efficiency and strengthen the viability of our business model, as well as our role in capital formation. We firmly believe that through our partnership with Archipelago and our new national market, we will lead securities exchanges down a new path by making the first bold strides into the 21st Century."
The Pacific Exchange was formed by the merger of the San Francisco Stock and Bond Exchange (founded in 1882) and the Los Angeles Stock and Oil Exchange (founded in 1899) in 1957. It began trading stock options in 1976, and is among the world's leading derivatives markets. It has been a leading source of technological innovation for U.S. exchanges throughout its history.
