The Pacific Exchange was a

regional stock exchange A regional stock exchange is a term used in the United States to describe stock exchanges that operate outside of the country's main financial center in New York City. A regional stock exchange operates in the trading of listed and over-the-count ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, from 1956 to 2006. Its main exchange floor and building were in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, with a branch building in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. In 1882, the

San Francisco Stock and Bond Exchange The San Francisco Stock and Bond Exchange was a regional stock exchange based in San Francisco, California, United States. Founded in 1882, in 1928 the exchange purchased and began using the name San Francisco Stock Exchange, while the old San Fran ...

was founded; and in 1899 the Los Angeles Oil Exchange was founded. In 1956, these two exchanges merged to create the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange, with

trading floor Open outcry is a method of communication between professionals on a stock exchange or futures exchange, typically on a trading floor. It involves shouting and the use of hand signals to transfer information primarily about buy and sell orde ...

s maintained in both cities. In 1973, it was renamed the Pacific Stock Exchange. The Pacific Exchange was bought by Archipelago Holdings in 2005, which merged with the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...

in 2006. Pacific Exchange equities and options trading now take place exclusively through the

NYSE Arca NYSE Arca, previously known as ArcaEx, an abbreviation of Archipelago Exchange, is an exchange on which both stocks and options are traded. It was owned by Intercontinental Exchange. It merged with the New York Stock Exchange in 2006 and now ope ...

platform.

History

Two separate exchanges were founded; the

in 1882 and the

Los Angeles Oil Exchange The Los Angeles Oil Exchange was a regional stock exchange in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1899, in 1900 the name was changed to the Los Angeles Stock Exchange. In 1956, it merged into the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange. History The Los Ang ...

in 1899. In 1956, they merged to create the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange, though separate

s were maintained in both cities. In 1973, it was renamed the Pacific Stock Exchange and it began trading options three years later in 1976. In 1999, the exchange became the first U.S. stock exchange to

demutualize Demutualization is the process by which a customer-owned mutual organization (''mutual'') or co-operative changes legal form to a joint stock company. It is sometimes called stocking or privatization. As part of the demutualization process, member ...

. The trading floor in Los Angeles was closed in 2001, followed by the floor in San Francisco a year later. 2003 saw the exchange launch

PCX Plus PCX, standing for ''PiCture eXchange'', was an image file format developed by the now-defunct ZSoft Corporation of Marietta, Georgia, United States. It was the native file format for PC Paintbrush and became one of the first widely accepted DOS i ...

, an electronic options trading platform. By 2005, the Pacific Exchange was bought by the owner of the ArcaEx platform, Archipelago Holdings, which then merged with the

in 2006. The New York Stock Exchange conducts no business operations under the name Pacific Exchange, essentially ending its separate identity. Pacific Exchange equities and options trading now takes place exclusively through the

(formerly known as ArcaEx) platform, an Electronic communication network (ECN), as NYSE Arca Equities and NYSE Arca Options, respectively.

San Francisco Pacific Exchange building history

The San Francisco Pacific Exchange building, which once housed the equities trading floor, is located on Pine Street at the corner of Sansome Street in the

Financial District A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...

in San Francisco. The building was initially designed in a

neoclassical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The pr ...

by architect

Milton Dyer J. Milton Dyer (April 22, 1870 – May 27, 1957) was a prominent Cleveland, Ohio architect. Background Dwyer was born in Middletown, Pennsylvania where his father had a hardware business.

in 1915. It was remodeled in 1930 by the firms Miller and Pflueger, architects

James Rupert Miller James Rupert Miller (June 27, 1869 – August 23, 1946) was an architect active in San Francisco, California in the first half of the 20th century. Miller gained prominence after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake when his firm was one among many ...

and Timothy Pflueger; and the interior design was done by architect Michael Goodman. The exterior building sculptures were created in Yosemite

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

by artist

Ralph Stackpole Ralph Ward Stackpole (May 1, 1885 – December 10, 1973) was an American sculptor, painter, muralist, etcher and art educator, San Francisco's leading artist during the 1920s and 1930s. Stackpole was involved in the art and causes of social realis ...

. Sketches made by Pflueger for the remodel of this building can be found in the permanent collection at

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

. After the 1930 remodeling, the building was in an Art Deco Moderne style, with its street facade was clad in

Yule marble Yule Marble is a marble of metamorphosed Leadville Limestone found only in the Yule Creek Valley, in the West Elk Mountains of Colorado, southeast of the town of Marble, Colorado.Marble Quadrangle, Colorado; USGS 7.5-minute series topographi ...

. The building was sold to private developers and converted by

Equinox Fitness Equinox Group is an American luxury fitness company which operates several lifestyle brands: Equinox, Equinox Hotels, Precision Run, Project by Equinox, Equinox Explore, Equinox Media, Furthermore, PURE Yoga, Blink Fitness, and SoulCycle. Withi ...

into a fitness center.

Mills Building

An options trading floor in the city of San Francisco still operates in the adjacent Mills Building on the second floor. It was originally connected to the main building and underwent an expansion in September 1984 and expanded again in the mid-1990s with major changes to the layout.

References

External links

San Francisco Chronicle: "Exchange Ending an Era. Pacific is phasing out its historic stock trading floor."

Youtube.com: SF options floor live trading in 1997
— ''filmed by a floor broker''.
First Cut episode: "What options trading really is"
{{Authority control Former stock exchanges in the United States Buildings and structures in San Francisco Buildings and structures in Downtown Los Angeles Economy of Los Angeles Economy of San Francisco Self-regulatory organizations in the United States Buildings and structures completed in 1930 Buildings and structures completed in 1931 1930s architecture in the United States Moderne architecture in California 2006 disestablishments

History

San Francisco Pacific Exchange building history

Mills Building

See also

References

External links