A new day is dawning for the NYSE and exchange traded funds (ETFs). NYSE Euronext is going to shut down two of the four remaining trading rooms at the New York Stock Exchange by Nov. 1. Rebates were announced to traders as a way to defend the market share for trading NYSE-listed stocks, reports Rupini Bergstrom for The Wall Street Journal. This move is a reaction to the industry’s shift to electronic trading and the emergence of competitors with advantages such as faster execution and better anonymity. Competitors such as the Nasdaq Stock Market are taking away from NYSE’s position because U.S. exchanges do not have monopolies in the trading of their own shares.

The closing affects the Blue Room that hosts trading and the Extended Blue Room where ETFs do business. Activities will be split up into the Main Room and the Garage. ETF trading will transfer to Arca, which has acquired many other ETFs this year.