The New York Stock Exchange will be looking to see if traders for broker/dealers are using instant messaging on cell phones to send transaction information from the exchange floor to an outside third party to assist in trading ahead schemes, said delegates who attended a recent Securities Industry Association compliance conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The remarks were made at the conference during a summary of several areas that NYSE Regulation will be looking at in the coming year, the delegates said. One delegate said the concern was an outcropping of recent NYSE focus on floor trader activities.

A spokesman at the NYSE said he could neither confirm nor deny that NYSE Regulation was investigating instances of misuse of instant messaging on the trading floor. But he did say that firms should be supervising to ensure it does not happen. "Firms are required to have supervisory controls in place," he said, "and to report such use of instant messaging." Regulators at the NYSE also said at the conference that examiners would be looking closely at supervision of firms' retail brokers, including sales of hedge funds to retail investors, a delegate said. Short sales were also mentioned as an ongoing concern at the NYSE. Two areas regulators said they would be looking at are failure to mark all trades long or short and failure to aggregate short sales.