40 Years of Experience With the National Market System: Who Are the Winners and What Have We Learned?

In 1975, the U.S. Securities Acts Amendments were enacted by Congress, which amongst other measures, officially mandated development of a National Market System (NMS). Since that time, the competitive map has been redrawn, technological changes have been huge and pervasive in scope, and the landscape is ever-changing. This book looks at the evolution of NMS and the factors that have influenced it since its development. Titled after the Baruch College Financial Markets Conference, 40 Years of Experience with the National Market System (NMS): Who Are the Winners and What Have We Learned, the book examines the following questions: What is liquidity and how is it best measured and provided? Has NMS-Induced competition delivered? What is technology’s challenge to regulators? Are fair and level playing fields a good regulatory goal? What is the buyside’s view?

The Zicklin School of Business Financial Markets Series presents the insights emerging from a sequence of conferences hosted by the Zicklin School at Baruch College for industry professionals, regulators, and scholars. The transcripts from the conferences are edited for clarity, perspective and context; material and comments from subsequent interviews with the panelists and speakers are integrated for a complete thematic presentation. Each book is focused on a well delineated topic, but all deliver broader insights into the quality and efficiency of the U.S. equity markets and the dynamic forces changing them.

Robert A. Schwartz is Marvin M. Speiser Professor of Finance and University Distinguished Professor in the Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, CUNY.  Before joining the Baruch faculty in 1997, he was Professor of Finance and Economics, and Yamaichi Faculty Fellow at New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business, where he had been a member of the faculty since 1965. In 1966, Professor Schwartz received his Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University.  His research is in the area of financial economics, with a primary focus on the structure of securities markets.  He has published over seventy refereed journal articles, twelve edited books, and nine authored books, including Micro Markets: A Market Structure Approach to Microeconomic Analysis, Wiley & Sons, 2010.  He has served as a consultant to various market centers including the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, the London Stock Exchange, Instinet, the Arizona Stock Exchange, Deutsche Börse, Borsa Istanbul and the Bolsa Mexicana.  From April 1983 to April 1988, he was an associate editor of The Journal of Finance, and he is currently an associate editor of the Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting and the Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies, and is a member of the advisory boards of International Finance and The Journal of Trading.  In December 1995, Professor Schwartz was named the first chairman of Nasdaq's Economic Advisory Board, and he served on the EAB until Spring 1999.  He is developer, with Bruce Weber of the trading and market structure simulation, TraderEx.  In 2009, Schwartz was named the first recipient of the World Federation of Exchanges’ annual Award for Excellence. In 2018, Schwartz was named the co-director of Baruch’s newly established Robert A. Schwartz Center for Trading and Financial Markets Research.