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Good morning. I’m Randy Snook, executive vice president, business policies and practices at SIFMA. Thank you for joining us at the 2017 SIFMA Equity Market Structure Conference. We’re pleased to provide this forum for an in-depth look at the state of U.S. equity market structure.
We have said before, and I am pleased that we are still able to say that the U.S. equity markets are the deepest and most liquid in the world. Consider that in the first quarter of 2017, nearly $270 billion dollars in equities were traded on the U.S. stock exchanges every day markets were open. That’s an average of over 6.8 billion shares changing hands every trading day. Deep and liquid trading markets are key to the services that all of you provide to your customers. In addition, the strength of the U.S. equity markets spurs investor confidence, opportunity and participation, creating a viable IPO market that provides businesses with capital to grow and invest. This pipeline to capital stimulates innovation and economic growth that creates jobs.
