The data indicated that during May 17-21, program trading amounted to 51.0 percent of NYSE average daily volume of 1,375.5 million shares, or 701.6 million shares a day. This included program trading associated with the May 21 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 May 17-21 would be to:
- examine buy programs as a percentage of total purchases(24.9 percent);
- examine sell programs as a percentage of total sales (26.1 percent);
- examine program purchases and sales as a percentage of total purchases and sales or twice total volume (25.5 percent).
In all markets, program trading averaged 1,172.6 million shares a day during May 17-21. About 59.8 percent of program trading took place on the NYSE, 4.6 percent in non-U.S. markets and 35.5 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 55.7 percent during May 17-21. Program volume executed as principal, for their own accounts, amounted to 42.1 percent of program volume.
Another 2.2 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.
Of the five member firms reporting the most program trading activity on the NYSE, UBS Securities executed most of its program trading as principal for its own account. Deutsche Banc Alex Brown and Goldman Sachs Group executed most of their program trading activity for customers, as agent. Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers split their activity between their own accounts and those of their customers.
During May 17-21, 12.8 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 0.1 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 87.1 percent of member firms’ program-trading volume during May 17-21.
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