Call a trader and he’ll lament Wall Street jobs are scarce.
Brokers talk of making just enough money to keep their lights on and the Bloomberg terminals humming. Barely. The growing reliance on electronic trading tools at the expense of flesh and blood traders on the cash desk stands as part of the reason behind this trend. Tabb Group says that electronic trading now comprises roughly 79 percent of total U.S. equity volume, up from 51 percent in 2005.
Another reason cited by traders and pundits is investors’ lack of confidence in the U.S. equity markets. At last week’s Security Traders Association of New York annual conference, several delegates peppered panelists about waning investor confidence and how it was the number-one issue facing the industry. Less trading volume means fewer sales traders needed.
This has manifested itself in lower headcounts at brokerages, such as the bulge firms like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, who have spent years trimming their workforces. But nowhere has this been more evident than in the small brokers, who have had to shut down as a result of falling trading volumes or the inability to stay adequately capitalized. The casualty list includes such firms as WJB Capital, Auriga, Ticonderoga Securities and Kaufman Brothers, to name a few.
However, data from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association don’t seem to bear out the gloom and doom talk at least on the national level. Employment over the last 12 years is down but not out, numbers show. Still, for New York City, home of the New York Stock Exchange and Wall Street, the numbers paint a darker picture.
