Pacific Exchange
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The Pacific Exchange was a regional stock exchange with a main exchange floor and building in San Francisco, California, USA and a branch in Los Angeles, California, USA. Its history began with the founding of the San Francisco Stock and Bond Exchange in 1882 and the Los Angeles Oil Exchange in 1889. In 1957, the two exchanges merged to create the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange, though trading floors were maintained in both cities. In 1973, The Exchange was renamed as the Pacific Stock Exchange and it began trading options three years later in 1976.
In 1999, the exchange became the first U.S. stock exchange to demutualize and by 2001, the trading floor in Los Angeles was closed followed by the floor in San Francisco a year later. 2003 saw the exchange launch PCX Plus, an electronic options trading platform. By 2005, the Pacific Exchange was bought by the owner of the ArcaEx platform, Archipelago Holdings, which in turn was bought by the New York Stock Exchange in 2006. The New York Stock Exchange conducts no business operations under the name Pacific Exchange, essentially ending its separate identity. Pacific Exchange equities and options trading now takes place exclusively through the NYSE Arca (formerly known as ArcaEx) platform, an Electronic communication network (ECN), as NYSE Arca Equities and NYSE Arca Options, respectively.
The former equities trading building on the corner of Sansome and Pine Streets in the Financial District of San Francisco was sold to private developers and converted into the Equinox Fitness. However, the options trading floor still operates in the 120 year old Mills Building that is connected to it. This trading floor had a massive expansion in September of 1984. Then it was again expanded in the mid-nineties beginning with a larger entrance on Montgomery Street which utilized existing spiral marble staircases. The west wall was then knocked out and the corridor behind turned into additional trading areas. The overhead monitors were stacked four rows high, twice as high as the existing trading pits, in order to maximize the use of the narrow area. Next, an unused area behind the trade-match room was converted into six additional trading areas to accommodate the exponential growth being experienced in late nineties. Eventually the hundreds of overhead monitors were removed because of seismic concerns and replaced with countertop flat screens. Unfortunately, the dual listing of issues in August of 1999, decimalization of options quotes, and technological replacement of open out-cry trading took away market share from the equity options trading floor. In spite of all of this, the options floor still is functioning today with local firms such as Casey Securities and Student Options, as well as, better known firms like Goldman Sachs maintaining a presence. Other participants maintain offices and trading facilities off the exchange floor, but still remotely partake in electronic exchange trading. The options floor can be seen as it was in the mid-eighties in the1986 film Quicksilver. Actor Kevin Bacon was the main protagonist, a market maker who 'blew out' his trading account and became a bicycle messenger while he redeemed himself. While artistic license was used, such as being allowed to trade without a 'hard badge' or an exchange member badge, the film captured the excitement and histrionics of open-outcry trading. The film featured many actual options traders who made cameos as his counterparts. Some of them are still on the floor while others have moved on to philanthropic endeavors or to other areas of the business such as hedge funds.