* A New York Stock Exchange seat...
* A New York Stock Exchange seat sold for $1.34 million on Thursday, down $10,000 from the previous sale, marking the fourth straight decline in price for membership at the Big Board.
Owning a seat at the world’s biggest stock exchange gives the holder the right to trade stocks and vote at NYSE meetings. The last sale took place May 21, when a seat sold for $1.35 million. Prices peaked in March, when a seat went for $2 million.
Prices fell because the sellers were among eight floor brokers charged in February with illegally profiting from information they learned on the floor, traders said. The brokers were suspended by the NYSE and forced to sell their seats, the traders said.
The last time seat prices fell four or more times in a row was 1990, when the price fell eight times.
That also was the last bear market year on Wall Street.
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