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- BUSINESS, Page 84Business NotesWALL STREETTaking the Pledge, Again
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- Program trading is the habit that Wall Street loves to kick
- -- temporarily. Faced with angry investors and the threat of a
- congressional crackdown, the New York Stock Exchange last week
- put new limits on such computerized trading. Critics blame this
- practice, in which speculators simultaneously buy and sell
- blocks of securities, for recent stock-market gyrations. Among
- the Big Board's reforms: a 15-minute halt in program trading
- when the Dow Jones average drops 30 points, and a 30-minute
- delay when the index falls 75 points.
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- The exchange unveiled its policy after most major Wall
- Street firms had backed away from program trading. But skeptics
- noted that brokerages had scrapped program trading following the
- 1987 crash, then resumed the lucrative practice as soon as the
- market became less volatile.
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