BIG BOARD SEAT ON UPTICK

The plunge in the value of seats at the Big Board appears to have hit a floor, in light of yesterday’s announcement that a seat traded hands for $1.2 million, a $225,000 increase over the $975,000 paid just two weeks ago. The buyer and seller were not disclosed.

The trade won’t be a fluke either. The current bid for a seat is $1.1 million and the current offer is $1.8 million, according to the New York Stock Exchange, suggesting that there is a chance that the next trade could occur at the $1.3 million level or above. Since the August 1999 peak value of $2.65 million, the price of a seat, conferring the right to trade securities on the exchange floor, has dropped sharply. Within the past year, values have declined 35%.

At the same time, the number of seat sales has risen. The NYSE has announced five so far this year, and 30 in 2004. Just 18 seats changed hands in 2003, and six in 2002, according to the NYSE.

The buyer of the NYSE seat two weeks ago, Seaport Securities president Ted Weisberg, said that he viewed the sudden increase in value of a seat as “a reflection on the viability of the institution over the longer-term.” Mr. Weisberg bought his first seat on the exchange in 1974.

Questioning the viability of the exchange has become something of a cottage industry. The venerable and clubby world of the NYSE has been rocked by numerous governance scandals, most spectacularly the indictment last May of its high profile former chairman Richard Grasso by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. Mr. Spitzer is seeking the return of $100 million of Mr. Grasso’s $187 mil lion long-term compensation package, arguing that Mr. Grasso misled the NYSE board on several matters.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

STOCK PICKER CONVICTED

Stock picker Anthony Elgindy was convicted of racketeering and fraud for parlaying illegal tips from an FBI agent into trading profits by short-selling stocks of companies under government investigation. Mr. Elgindy, 36, who also went by the name Anthony Pacific, was convicted by a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York, after about four days of deliberations. The trial began in November. The former agent, Jeffrey Royer, 41, was also convicted. Authorities said Mr. Elgindy used inside information obtained from Mr. Royer to spread negative publicity about some of the companies being probed through his online newsletter.

– Bloomberg News