Capital Flow Watch

Securities exchanges are being transformed from “stockbrokers’ clubs” into profit-oriented companies selling services to customers. Long the ‘masters of the universe’, stockbrokers are expected to become less influential. Free from the constraints of small broker-dealers, demutualized exchanges are in the midst of rapid modernization and dramatic change. Computerized trading, book-entry settlement, central depositories, and cross-border exchanges are now the norm, not the exception.