Pacific Exchange

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The Pacific Exchange was a regional stock exchange located in San Francisco, California, USA. Its history begins with the founding of the San Francisco Stock and Bond exchange in 1882. Seven years later, the Los Angeles Oil Exchange was founded. In 1957, the two exchanges merged to form the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange, though trading floors were kept in both cities. A name change to the Pacific Stock Exchange took place in 1973. Options trading began three years later. In 1997, "Stock" was dropped from the exchange's name.

In 1999, the Pacific Exchange was the first US stock exchange to demutualize. In 2001, the Los Angeles trading floor was closed, and the next year the San Francisco trading floor closed as well. Pacific Exchange equities trading now takes place exclusively through NYSE Arca (formerly known as ArcaEx), an Electronic Communications Network. Its former trading floor on the corner of Sansome and Pine Street in its financial district was sold to private developers and converted into a gymnasium. Though the options trading floor is still open, in the Mills Building, around the corner from the stock exchange.

In 2003, the Pacific Exchange launched PCX Plus, an electronic options trading platform.

On September 27, 2005, the Pacific Exchange was bought by the owner of the ArcaEx, Archipelago Holdings, which in turn was bought by the New York Stock Exchange in 2006. The New York Stock Exchange Group, Inc. conducts no business operations under the name Pacific Exchange, essentially ending its separate identity.