Stock Trading and Other Things

Who are the people at the NY Stock exchange floor?

I think I know but im not sure. Who are the people on the floor of the NY stock exchange, the guys who are always yelling and writing stuff down on their little papers?

Public Comments

1. Those are traders.
They work for the exchange, or brokerages and they are the people who buy and sell the stocks that you place orders with.
If you call your broker, they could contact a trader on the floor of the NYSE who would then get a bid for the stock or commodity and confirm the trade has been executed.

2. Market makers, floor traders, brokers and clerks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/nyregion/23exchange.html?ex=1348200000&en=3cc81a479b50d4c4&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Stock_Exchange

On the trading floor, the NYSE trades in a continuous auction format, where traders can execute stock transactions on behalf of investors. They will gather around the appropriate post where a specialist broker, who is employed by an NYSE member firm (that is, he/she is not an employee of the New York Stock Exchange), acts as an auctioneer in an open outcry auction market environment to bring buyers and sellers together and to manage the actual auction. They do on occasion (approximately 10% of the time) facilitate the trades by committing their own capital and as a matter of course disseminate information to the crowd that helps to bring buyers and sellers together.