Opinionline: NYSE deal shows future of finance

• NYSE and its focus on a shrinking equities market is the past.
• Its 'iconic trading floor' isn't even a tourist attraction anymore.
• NYSE Euronext is an electronic exchange in its own right.

Christopher Matthews, Time: "The recent history of the New York Stock Exchange is interesting in part because it's an illustration of how disruptive new technology can be. Twenty years ago, the NYSE and its relatively young rival NASDAQ accounted for 97% of the total U.S. stock trading volume. Then the rapid development of computer technology ... enabled dozens of alternative trading venues to sprout up over the past two decades, increasing competition for volume and driving down the exchanges' profits, ultimately pushing the NYSE — one of the most enduring symbols of American capitalism — towards increasing irrelevancy. So (the Dec. 20) announcement that a young, Atlanta-based commodity and derivatives exchange called IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) has agreed to purchase NYSE Euronext for $8.2 billion is just another sign of traditional exchanges' waning importance on Wall Street."

Bloomberg View, editorial: "The name on the building will remain and the opening bell will continue to ring every trading day. But an era is about to end, sadly. ... The contrasts between buyer and seller are stark, and go a long way to explain the deal's backstory: The NYSE is the world's largest stock market, where the trading floor and colonnaded structure in the heart of Wall Street are symbols of American-style capitalism. ICE, as the buyer is known, offers mostly electronic futures trading and clearing. For better or worse, the NYSE and its focus on a shrinking equities market is the past."

Heidi Moore,The (London) Guardian: "It used to be that the NYSE's model — providing a market where people could buy stock and sell it — was the center of financial power plays. But the biggest exchange in the United States today is not a stock exchange. It is a commodities exchange: the former Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Against all odds, it is the Trading Places version of Wall Street — the world of commodities, of wheat and coffee, and of derivatives — that is in the ascendant."

Felix Salmon, Reuters: "The NYSE Group is now just going to be a subsidiary of ICE; in the official announcement, which talks about its 'iconic trading floor,' you can almost hear ICE CEO Jeffrey Sprecher rolling his eyes and wondering why on earth he needs to hang on to what at this point is little more than a heavily guarded tourist attraction."

John Carney, CNBC: "There will be lots of noise about the 'iconic trading floor.' No one wants to admit that the NYSE isn't even a tourist attraction any more — they haven't allowed tourists in the building for over a decade. But the return on investment for being a big public exchange is so low that I wouldn't be surprised if we find, a few years from now, that the NYSE has been sold off ."

Zachary M. Seward and Matt Phillips, Quartz: "You could make the case that this is yet another example of the rise of electronic trading. But it's not as if the NYSE really depends on all the guys you see on CNBC puttering around in blue jackets. By and large, NYSE Euronext is an electronic exchange in its own right. No, what this deal underscores is just what a dog the stock trading business has become. And that seems to be a ubiquitous theme ... with major banks dumping equities traders, hedge funds avoiding stocks and retail investors continuing to shun them, too."