Includes the first published detailed description of option exchange operations, the first published treatment using only elementary mathematics and the first step-by-step procedure for implementing the Black-Scholes formula in actual trading.

This is a reprnit of a previously published book. it deals with changes on the U.S. financial market by the Securities Acts Amendment of 1975.

The October 1987 stock market crash raised critical questions concerning the efficiency, competitiveness, and fairness of U.S. securities markets. Many experts questioned the structure of the marketplace and its ability to both withstand periods of high stress and operate efficiently in ordinary times. Market experts and analysts have debated these questions since the crash. Renewed volatility in the markets, as indicated by the 190-point drop on October 13, 1989, and the subsequent record gained the following week, has again created doubt about whether the financial markets are properly designed to meet the demands placed upon them. To identify market structure issues, GAO met with federal regulators, exchange and over-the-counter market officials, market professionals, institutional investors, and academics. GAO evaluated what should be done to address the most important issues identified through these discussions-trading restrictions, market links, and options trading.

In early 2001, U.S. stock & option markets began quoting prices in decimal increments rather than fractions of a dollar. At the same time, the minimum price increment, or tick size, was reduced to a penny on the stock markets & to 10¢ & 5¢ on the option markets. Although many believe that decimal pricing has benefited small individual (retail) investors, concerns have been raised that the smaller tick sizes have made trading more challenging & costly for large institutional investors, including mutual funds & pension plans. The financial livelihood of market intermediaries may also have been negatively affected by the lower ticks. This report assesses the effect of decimal pricing on retail & institutional investors & on market intermediaries. Charts.

The U.S. stock market has been transformed over the last twenty-five years. Once a market in which human beings traded at human speeds, it is now an electronic market pervaded by algorithmic trading, conducted at speeds nearing that of light. High-frequency traders participate in a large portion of all transactions, and a significant minority of all trade occurs on alternative trading systems known as “dark pools.” These developments have been widely criticized, but there is no consensus on the best regulatory response to these dramatic changes. The New Stock Market offers a comprehensive new look at how these markets work, how they fail, and how they should be regulated. Merritt B. Fox, Lawrence R. Glosten, and Gabriel V. Rauterberg describe stock markets’ institutions and regulatory architecture. They draw on the informational paradigm of microstructure economics to highlight the crucial role of information asymmetries and adverse selection in explaining market behavior, while examining a wide variety of developments in market practices and participants. The result is a compelling account of the stock market’s regulatory framework, fundamental institutions, and economic dynamics, combined with an assessment of its various controversies. The New Stock Market covers a wide range of issues including the practices of high-frequency traders, insider trading, manipulation, short selling, broker-dealer practices, and trading venue fees and rebates. The book illuminates both the existing regulatory structure of our equity trading markets and how we can improve it.