Only rarely can a chief executive jump out a forty-fourth-floor window after a board meeting (The Hudsucker Proxy), or will a boss send a message as dramatic as the horse's head left in a bed in The Godfather.
His likely successor at NYSE Euronext (nyse: NYX - news - people ), Duncan Niederauer, is a fellow Goldman alum who has expressed disdain for floor brokers--another sign the ever-shrinking auction floor of the Big Board is giving way to NYSE's electronic systems.