NYSE announced that effective Monday, January 25, 2021, it will reintroduce a subset of Designated Market Makers (DMM) to conduct manual trading, including the opening and closing auctions, in the DMM unit’s assigned securities. The Trading Floor will continue to operate with reduced headcount and additional safety precautions to accommodate health-focused considerations.

Until the Trading Floor fully reopens, NYSE expects a subset of NYSE-listed securities will continue to be supported by the DMM remotely. NYSE will publish a daily list on its website of those securities that will be ineligible for manual auctions conducted from the Floor.

Let’s recall that, on December 28, 2020, in response to changes in the NYC-area public health conditions, NYSE DMMs temporarily returned to remote operations. DMMs retained their regulatory obligations to maintain fair and orderly markets in all NYSE-listed securities and they electronically provided liquidity and facilitate the auctions in their assigned securities.

On a typical day, the DMM firms operate with a mix of electronic and human activity. The vast majority of their intraday liquidity provision, the displayed bids and offers they provide continuously through the trading day, are submitted electronically. There was no change to this activity while the DMMs operated remotely.