NYSE floor reopens with new safety measures after two-month shutdown

Jonathan Corpina of Meridian Equity Partners joins Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi and Alexis Christoforous to discuss what it feels like to be back on the floor of the NYSE.

Video Transcript

BRIAN SOZZI: Jonathan Corpina of Meridian Equity Partners joins us now. Jonathan, always good to speak with you. So what is it like? Take us through the process of getting into work this morning.

JONATHAN CORPINA: Good morning, Brian. Yeah, it was quite different. Right? Normally, I take the train coming into work, into Grand Central, and take the subway downtown. So drove in today, which was much quicker than it normally would be on a day where there's a lot of traffic.

But coming into the building today, you know, clearly, emotions were felt. We were very excited to be back in this reopening. We knew this day was going to come at some point. When the date was announced last week, started working on the reopening process here with the exchange, as far as layouts on the floor and technology is concerned. So happy to be here.

Screening, walking into the building, they were taking our temperatures. And then once on the floor, have to wear a mask, required at all times when inside the building here. Hand sanitizers have been placed throughout the floor. Social distancing stamps and markings have been placed everywhere. We've got some areas that have plexiglass in between workstations. So clearly a very clean, controlled environment that the traders can come back and work in.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Hey, Jonathan. I'm just curious. Are you-- you know, on a human level, are you just worried? Was there trepidation coming back to the floor? A lot of your friends and colleagues-- or some of them, I should say-- did come down with COVID-19. They have recovered or are still in recovery mode. Some of them are not back on the floor yet. Are you fearful at all about contracting this as you're making your way into work or while you're on the floor?

JONATHAN CORPINA: So of the 1,000-plus people that work in this building, it was a very, very small number that did come down with it. And the processes that the NYSE has put in place prior to the close and to this point and moving forward are at very, very high levels. I feel very comfortable coming back into this building.

Every 24 hours, they are sanitizing everything in this entire room behind me. I would debate that, behind the White House, this is the second-cleanest safest place to be in the United States right now.

There are risks going anywhere. There are risks going to your local grocery store or your pharmacy. And those risks are going to continue. It's just a question of, what are the best practices to mitigate those risks? The NYSE has clearly done that. And everybody in this building right now feels very comfortable to be here.

BRIAN SOZZI: Jonathan, was it harder or easier to do your job from home?

JONATHAN CORPINA: I'm sorry, Brian. Could you repeat that?

BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah. Was it harder or easier just working from home for what you do?

JONATHAN CORPINA: It's-- it's definitely harder. Right? So being here in this environment and having other traders around me, we're able to communicate back and forth, face to face, to get price discovery, to be able to find larger blocks, to be able to give our clients the best price. And our clients are mutual funds, pension funds, hedge funds. That trickles right down to the end investor, the 401(k), the IRA holders.

So being off the floor definitely had a little bit of a disconnect. Back in this room right now, the sights, the sounds, the action that goes on around you, albeit less today with the capacity constraints, it certainly adds to being more productive and being much more efficient when trading here on the floor.

In addition, there are some tools that we have here on the floor that are only on the floor and cannot be used or accessed from outside the building. So having those back in place is clearly a benefit for the end investor.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: You know, Jonathan, we spoke with the president of the exchange, Stacey Cunningham, a little earlier. And she was telling us how the specialists, or so-called market makers, are not on the floor right now. They're still working virtually. How does that impact what you need to do on a day-to-day basis, not having them there physically?

JONATHAN CORPINA: Yeah. So coming back to this, we knew that that was going to be part of the plan and part of the rollout. And there had to be a little give and take on all sides as far as what the phases we're going to look like.

Not having them here certainly is something that does not overall help our processes and what we do and how we do it. They help with the price discovery process. They help with adding liquidity into the market. They help as a catalyst, matching up buyers and sellers together.

Looking forward to them coming back, and that's clearly going to be something that will help us as traders, which will help our clients and investors. But for now, they are trading virtually. They're still providing liquidity from off the floor. We're just missing that human face-to-face interaction, which will come back soon.

BRIAN SOZZI: Jonathan, I don't have to tell you this. The floor, the trading floor community, bounced back significantly after 9/11. But is there something different about this event, where you may not see a lot of your friends come back to the trading floor?

JONATHAN CORPINA: It certainly is different. Right? I mean, I was here for 9/11. And when we reopened a few days later, everybody was back here-- you know, those who could make it. Same thing for Sandy. We closed for a few days there, and everybody who could make it in was back in.

This is certainly different. But the fact that we knew about this and was part of the plan and part of the process, coming back and choosing that, of the 16 Meridian employees, only six will be back here on the floor. Yes, it is different. But we were aware of that. And we were able to make those adjustments coming in.

And also knowing that my six is going to go to 8, 10, 12, at some point-- I don't know when-- but at some point, we are going to be able to bring our additional points back here is a light at the end of the tunnel for us.

BRIAN SOZZI: All right. Let's leave it there. Jonathan Corpina, Meridian Equity Partners senior managing partner, good to speak with you from the New York Stock Exchange floor again.

JONATHAN CORPINA: Brian, Alexis, have a great day. Thank you.