Newest Cheap ‘Seats’ Belong to the NYSE

In the mid-1970s, owning a yellow cab in the world’s financial capital cost more than a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.

Things aren’t that grim today, but with the stock market falling and the securities industry in a recession, the price of membership on the nation’s oldest and largest exchange has sunk to its lowest level in almost five years.

A “seat”--which entitles members to trade directly on the stock exchange floor--sold for $365,000 Thursday, down from the all-time high of $1.15 million in September, 1987, a month before the stock market crashed. It was the lowest price since May, 1985.

“In the last year or so there has been a significant retrenching in the industry, and that’s what we’re seeing here,” said James J. Maguire, chairman of Henderson Brothers Inc., an NYSE member firm.

On the floor of the Big Board--so named because stock symbols were listed on one before the electronic age--the bid for a seat price Friday was $355,000, with an asking price of $400,000.

The price of an NYSE membership has fallen steadily since the 1987 market crash after a steady rise that took seats from a low of $35,000 in 1977 to $105,000 in 1978, $425,000 in 1983 and $600,000 in 1986.

At the 1977 nadir, it cost $55,000 for a New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission medallion, compared with $135,000 today.

Seats are held by brokerage firms, specialists and individual brokers who trade for themselves but seats are registered in one person’s name. Non-members must pay members to execute trades.