THE first public demonstration of the computerised auto-matching system (AMS) on the exchange floor was one of the rare occasions on which anyone is allowed into the hallowed area other than floor traders in their red vests.
You can't see it from the public viewing gallery, but there's a huge clock on the wall. It's sponsored by Rolex, as if to say: ''This is what you're aiming at, folks!'' There's also a beautiful piece of calligraphy - by former Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office chief Ji Pengfei, we understand.
Yet the trading floor - that giant room you see on TV every time American stock-tipper Barton Biggs blows his nose - will be obsolete when AMS comes in.
It's owned by the Hong Kong Government, not the exchange. Its fate will depend on the attitude of small brokers, probably. The big ones will be quite happy to scrap the trading floor, but the minnows may be unhappy, so it's not going to be emptied overnight.
In London, everyone thought the trading floor would be retained after the computers were brought in, but it disappeared almost immediately. No one wanted it any more.
Despite hopes that it would be turned into a swimming pool, it ended up as offices.
