FNCE 4070 – Financial Markets and
Institutions

• Equity securities represents an ownership interest in a corporation.
• Holders of equity securities are entitled to the earnings of a corporation that are distributed in the form of dividends
• Holders of equity securities are entitled to a pro-rata share of remaining equity in the case of a liquidation of the company

• Common Stock
– Has voting rights
– Pays dividends
– Holder hopes/expects that the price will rise
• Preferred Stock
– Pays a fixed dividend
– Price is relatively stable
– Votes only if the firm fails to pay the dividend
– Much more like a corporate bond than common stock

• An exchange is a marketplace where financial intermediaries come together to deliver and execute customer orders
• A Physical exchange has a trading floor where the financial intermediaries meet
• An electronic exchange has no trading floor and works electronically.

• Broker
– A pure middleman who acts as agents for investors in the purchase or sale of securities
– Their function is to match buyers with sellers for which they are paid a commission
– There are typically two types of brokers
• Full service
– Higher commissions
– Proprietary research
• Discount Broker
– Lower commissions
– Simply offer execution service

• Dealer or Market-Maker
– They link buyers with sellers by holding inventories of securities
– Stand ready to buy or sell securities at given prices
– Make their money through the spread between their bid (buy) and offer (sell) price
– Provide liquidity into the market
• Especially important for smaller stocks

• In this market buy and sell orders of public participants who are the holders of the securities establish the prices at which other public participants trade.
– Continuous market – a trade can be made at any moment in time when a buy and sell order meet
– Call auction – orders are batched together for simultaneous execution.
• For smaller companies and in times of market stress there are no natural providers of liquidity in the market

• Market Order – This order is to be executed at the best possible price available in the market
– The positive is that you are filled no matter what
– The negative is that in a fast moving market or illiquid market you will be filled at whatever price is available.

Price of
Security
Higher Price
Limit Order
Price specified for a sell order
Current Price -
Lower Price Price specified for a buy order
Comment Can be filled only if price is better
Market if
Touched Order
Price specified for a sell order
-
Price specified for a buy order
Becomes a market order when the price is reached
Stop-Limit
Order
Price specified for a buy order
-
Price specified for a sell order
Can only be filled if price is better
Stop Order
Price specified for a buy order
-
Price specified for a sell order
Becomes a market order when the price is reached.

• Day only
– must be executed today
• Good until Cancelled
– will stay valid until it is executed or cancelled
• Fill or Kill
– this will be cancelled if it is not immediately filled completely
• Intermediate or Cancel
– this will be cancelled immediately but allows partial fill.

Buy Quantity
10,000
14,000
5,500
3,000
5,000
Buy Price
99
98
95
90
80
Sell Price
102
105
106
110
115
Sell Quantity
15,000
9,000
3,500
4,000
3,000

• In this market dealers – quote the prices at which the public participants trade. Market makers provide:
– a bid quote (to buy) and
– an offer quote (to sell).

B
C
Dealer
A
Bid
40.50
40.35
40.20
Offer
41.20
41.10
41.00
B
C
Dealer
A
Bid
40.50
40.35
40.20
B
A
Dealer
C
Offer
41.00
41.10
41.20

• Many equity markets are a combination of an order driven market and a quote driven market.
– The New York Stock Exchange is primarily a continuous auction order driven system but
• At the open and close and after any stop in trading it operates a call auction.
• Specialists enhance the liquidity by the market-making to maintain a fair market
• There are dealers who provide capital to execute block trades (large size).

• Trades from 9:30 to 4 every day
– Opening auction at 9:30
• Orders can be entered into the auction from 7:30-9:30
– Closing auction at 4
• Orders can be entered into the auction from 9:30-4
– For every stock there is a designated market maker (DMM)
• Charged with maintaining a fair and orderly market
• Provide liquidity as necessary to the market

• Introduced in 1971
– The worlds first electronic exchange
– Originally a bulletin board that did not connect buyers with sellers but simply gave better price transparency
• Primarily a dealer system where
– Multiple dealers provide quotes and make trades
– In 2002 introduced Super Montage
• An order based system

• Essentially this is a limit order book
– Widely disseminated and open to continuous trading for subscribers.
– Offers
• Transparency,
• Anonymity,
• Automated Service
• Reduced Costs
– Good for smaller trades
– Often links best bid and offer to exchanges

• This is a limit order trade for which only a portion is shown to the order book at any given time.
– Only the top of the order appears in the order book at any given time.
– Once this portion is filled then a new limit order will appear in the order book for this same amount until the entire order is filled.

• A network that matches buyers and sellers of larger sizes using prices from elsewhere
• Dark Pools
– Private crossing networks
– Allows for anonymous trading
– Gives access to large liquidity pools that do not want to have their positions known publically
– Trade reporting is delayed as long as possible to minimize market impact.

• Commissions – generally these are completely negotiable and will depend on the size of your trade and your relationship with your broker.
• Custodial Fees – These are the costs associated with holding a stock position. They would generally pay for dividend handling, corporate action handling, etc.
• Soft Dollars – These are costs for items such as research embedded in the commissions
– Institutional clients will often negotiate with a broker exchanging a percentage of their order flow for free access to research
– SEC is now strict about what can be bought with soft dollars – for example, one cannot receive free vacations.

• Impact Costs – These are the costs associated with completing a large order. If your trade is large relative to normal market size then it can move the market
• Timing Costs – These are the costs associated with the delay between when you instruct a broker to execute a trade and when the trade actually completes
• Opportunity Costs – In equity markets these are the costs associated with trades that do not complete due to the market moving against the trade during the execution of the trade

(www.interactivebrokers.com)

• A strategy that allows one to profit from the outperformance of one stock versus another stock.
– The trader is trying not to take general market risk. The strategy should not make/lose money on general market moves.
• Stock selection would generally be made through fundamental analysis on stocks