(Bloomberg) — Investors havent benefited from changes in the way the market functions, according to Dick Grasso, the former head of the New York Stock Exchange.
The structure of the market today for major securities has been terribly hurt, Grasso said in a taped interview for the television program Wall Street Week that also was streamed online. A fast market is not necessarily a fair market.
Since Grasso stepped down as the NYSEs chief executive officer in 2003, the dominance of the Big Board and its rival, Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., has waned as regulations spurred competitors. Though bothNYSEand Nasdaq handle about a fifth of U.S. trading volume, thats a fraction of their former heft.
Grasso singled out high-frequency trading firms, whose advantage relative to the retail investor is bad for the country, bad for the market and bad for your business.
Current regulation has been a sad, sad experiment, Grasso said. He recommends a wholesale review of the rules of the markets involving participants from across the exchanges and regulatory agencies.
Wall Street Week is produced by SkyBridge Media, an affiliate of SkyBridge Capital, the fund-of-funds business founded by Anthony Scaramucci. SkyBridge, which sometimes has other business relationships with the shows participants, advertisers and sponsors, pays Fox stations in key markets to broadcast the show and also streams it online every Sunday.
