Hybrid Market

A hybrid market is a securities exchange that facilitates trading through a blend of an automated electronic trading platform and a traditional floor broker system. Hybrid markets give brokers a choice between participating in the exchange through the traditional floor broker system, or the faster automated electronic exchange system.

A hybrid market uses both the traditional floor broker system and an automatic electronic trading system. Investors can choose the method by which they want to place their order. The key advantage to electronic trades is speed — they take less than one second to execute, while the average floor broker trade typically takes about nine seconds.

In January 2007, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) became the prominent example of a hybrid market. The NYSE, one of the world's oldest major exchanges, operated for years with its system of human brokers manually making trades on the trading floor. When electronic trades were introduced, it gave clients an option for execution. On January 24, 2007, the NYSE moved to allow almost all of its listed stocks to become available for electronic trading. These stocks can still be traded in the traditional method on the trading floor, but brokers also have the option of trading them electronically. Currently, the majority of trades placed on exchanges are electronic and some exchanges have even done away with their floor broker systems in the name of transparency and efficiency.