The data indicated that during April 17-April 20, program trading amounted to 21.3 percent of NYSE average daily volume of 1,052.3 million shares, or 224.2 million shares a day. This included program trading associated with the April 20 monthly expiration of stock-index options and futures.
Program trading encompasses a wide range of portfolio-trading strategies involving the purchase or sale of a basket of at least 15 stocks with a total value of $1 million or more. Program trading is calculated as the sum of the shares bought, sold and sold short in program trades. The total of these shares is divided by total reported volume.
This is not the only way to measure program trading. Three alternatives for April 17-April 20 would be to: examine buy programs as a percentage of total purchases (10.7 percent); examine sell programs as a percentage of total sales (10.6 percent); examine program purchases and sales as a percentage of total purchases and sales or twice total volume (10.7 percent).
For the second quarter of 2000, the NYSE's program-trading report includes profiles of program trading whenever the Dow Jones Industrial Average moves 200 points or more in a single direction during any one-hour period. During April 17-April 20, there were no such periods.
In all markets, program trading averaged 325.1 million shares a day during April 17-April 20. About 68.9 percent of program trading took place on the NYSE, 9.4 percent in non-U.S. markets and 21.7 percent in other domestic markets, including Nasdaq, the American Stock Exchange and regional markets.
In aggregate, program volume executed on the NYSE by firms as agent, for non-member customers, amounted to 74.5 percent during April 17-April 20. Program volume executed as principal, for their own accounts, amounted to 23.6 percent of program volume.
Another 1.9 percent was designated as customer facilitation, in which a member firm established or liquidated a principal position to facilitate a program order initiated by a customer.
All of the five member firms reporting the most program trading activity on the NYSE executed all or most of their program trading activity for customers, as agent. Those companies were: Deutsche Bank Securities, BNP Securities, Bear Stearns, RBC Dominion and Goldman Sachs.
During April 17-April 20, 17.7 percent of program volume executed by NYSE member firms related to index arbitrage. Index arbitrage is defined as the purchase or sale of a basket of stocks in conjunction with the sale or purchase of a derivative product such as stock-index futures, to profit from the price difference between the basket and the derivative product.
Another 1.0 percent involved derivative product-related strategies (besides index arbitrage) that are subject to Rule 80A. The rule provides that derivative-related program strategies be executed only in a stabilizing manner after the DJIA moves 200 points or more from the previous day's close.
In addition to index arbitrage, such strategies include customer facilitations, liquidation of facilitations, index substitutions, liquidation of error accounts, risk modifications, and liquidation of exchange-for-physicals stock positions. All other types of portfolio-trading strategies combined accounted for 81.3 percent of member firms' program-trading volume during April 17-April 20.
