Amex Reopens Trading Floor After Attacks

The American Stock Exchange, displaced from its home near the World Trade Center since Sept. 11, reopened its trading floor Monday.

Established in the early 19th century to trade stocks not listed on the New York Stock Exchange, the Amex was originally known as the New York Curb Market because initially its traders worked on the street outside the NYSE.

For much of the last century the Amex was primarily known as a market of small and mid-sized stocks. Today the Amex’s most popular stock is the index trust that tracks the technology-dominated Nasdaq 100 (ticker symbol: QQQ). The exchange lost market share in the QQQ shares to rivals while it was closed and now must work to get that business back, traders said.

The Amex seemed to make significant progress Monday in QQQ business: The Amex’s QQQ volume of 15.3 million shares was more than double the NYSE’s 6.4 million.

The Amex is owned by the National Assn. of Securities Dealers, parent of the Nasdaq Stock Market.