Sell signal
EXCHANGES are falling over each other to turn into companies. Australia's Stock Exchange is already quoted on itself and has bid (unsuccessfully) for the Sydney Futures Exchange. The New York Stock Exchange is following London's example, or preceding it, and Life, London's financial futures exchange, thinks that becoming a company is part of its survival kit. Some exchange will have to specialise in the exchange of stock in these exchanges. Should we buy, though? When the partners in Goldman Sachs, hav- ing ridden the greatest stock-market boom of the age, thought it was time to sell shares in their firm, I respected their judgment. Their timing still looks good to me, though not greedy. When the owners of stock exchanges try to sell them, I shall respect their judgment, too. If they want to be out of the market, I don't want to be in it.
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