Self-Regulatory Organizations; Order Granting Approval To Proposed Rule Change and Amendment Nos. 1 and 2 Thereto by the New York Stock Exchange, Inc. Relating to Amendments to Exchange Rule 104 and Rule 123

On February 6, 2004, the New York Stock Exchange, Inc. (“NYSE” or “Exchange”) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission”), pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Act”) and Rule 19b-4 thereunder, a proposed rule change to amend NYSE Rule 104.10 (Dealings by Specialists) to provide that customers may limit the ability of specialists to trade along with their orders or to invoke precedence based on size when the specialist is liquidating a position in its specialty security for its dealer account, and to make a corresponding change to NYSE Rule 123 (Records of Orders) concerning record keeping. On April 5, 2004, the Exchange amended the proposed rule change. On July 14, 2004, the Exchange again amended the proposed rule change. The proposed rule change, as amended, was published for comment in the Federal Register on August 2, 2004. The Commission received no comments on the proposal. This order approves the proposed rule change, as amended.

The Commission finds that the proposed rule change is consistent with the requirements of Section 6 of the Act, applicable to a national securities exchange. In particular, the Commission believes that the proposal is consistent with Section 6(b)(5) of the Act, which requires, among other things that an exchange have rules that are designed to promote just and equitable principles of trade, to remove impediments to and perfect the mechanism of a free and open market and a national market system, and, in general, to protect investors and the public interest.

Currently, when a specialist liquidates a position in his or her specialty security, the specialist is permitted to trade on parity with the crowd or may invoke precedence based on size. The Exchange believes that there may be circumstances in which a customer will wish to preclude a specialist from trading on parity or invoking precedence based on size. Accordingly, the Exchange has proposed to amend NYSE Rule 104.10(6)(i) to include new paragraph (C) to provide that transactions by a specialist for his or her dealer account in liquidating or decreasing a position in a specialty security must yield to a customer's order in the crowd upon the request of the member representing such order, where such request has been documented as a term of the order, to the extent of the volume of such order included in the quote prior to the transaction. The customer's order will then participate in the transaction to the extent that priority, parity and precedence rules permit. In addition, the Exchange has proposed to amend NYSE Rule 123 to add new paragraph (g) to provide that a request to a specialist to yield to a customer order is a condition of that order and must be documented in accordance with applicable books and records requirements.

By giving the crowd broker the ability to require that the specialist yield to his or her customer's order, the Commission believes that the proposed amendment will create more similarity in the way orders on the book and in the crowd are handled. The Commission further believes that the proposal may enhance the execution of customer orders on the Exchange.

It is therefore ordered, pursuant to Section 19(b)(2) of the Act, that the proposed rule change, as amended, (SR-NYSE-2004-06) be, and hereby is, approved.