NYSE: We’re irrelevant!

When I was back in college, I spent several summers as an intern on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

It was the early ’80s. The equity markets were coming out of a 15-year funk and the Fed was cutting rates after an epic tightening cycle. The NYSE was the epicenter of the financial universe.

Today it is a TV studio. The exchange model for stock trading is broken. All the volume (what little of it there is) has moved to the screens…) .

So it comes as little surprise that CNBC has been trumpeting a new set on the floor of the NYSE all day today. Literally on the floor.

When the floor was relevant, a clerk’s booth was as precious as a Fifth Avenue co-op with a view of the park.

Now, they’ve devoted hundreds of square feet to the likes of Jim Cramer. Sad.