Nasdaq tries human touch to win IPOs

New York

ONE morning in November, Jay Heller stood at his desk at the Nasdaq Stock Market monitoring thousands of orders to trade Virgin America Inc. A crowd including the airline's Chief Executive Officer, David Cush, looked on.

Mr Heller was overseeing the share auction on Virgin America's first day of trading following its initial public offering. After 17 minutes, he released the stock and a burst of 1.6 million shares were sold in a split-second. Mr Heller shook hands with Mr Cush and Nasdaq OMX Group CEO Robert Greifeld, celebrating the exchange's latest successful IPO.