The days of shouted orders and crumpled trade tickets on vast floors jammed with frantic stock traders are numbered. 

Turns out the human faces of Wall Street are rapidly being replaced by nondescript computer technicians quietly monitoring speedy rack-mounted servers.  They execute billions of trades daily in placid data centers located in remote locations far from the high rises (and high rents) of Manhattan.

Based on technology known as electronic communications networks (ECN), these new trading platforms allow traders to bypass the big exchanges and match buy and sell orders online.

The trend has triggered a wave of consolidation among major stock exchanges around the world that is expected to gain momentum as they struggle to compete against a barrage of emboldened upstarts. 

But the markets may see newcomers grab even more market share before the big boys can contain the damage.

It’s a new paradigm that has shaken the markets and toppled the established worldwide bourses from their lofty perches, changing the very nature of the securities business.

Reform Laws Create New Trading Platforms 

After a deluge of complaints, federal regulators in 2007 approved new rules ordering brokers to route their trades to the cheapest exchanges, as opposed to the most convenient.  Similar regulations were enacted in Europe, as well.

Almost immediately, a number of small but sophisticated market exchanges sprang up, and the interlopers quickly began to poach business from the major players.

In the United States, the newly minted Bats Exchange, just three years old, now commands approximately 12% of all U.S. volume. In Europe, Chi-X, burst onto the scene 18 months ago, after new European regulations took effect.  Turquoise, another upstart, was launched at the start of last September.

Even Nasdaq OMX (NDAQ), which has been "floorless" - all electronic - since its inception in 1971, is busy grabbing customers from its traditonal Wall Street brethren.  Nasdaq now trades more New York Stock Exchange listed stocks daily than the Big Board itself.

And even though they are just starting to gain traction in Europe, the latest data suggests the smallfries have been taking big pieces of market share, particularly from the London Stock Exchange.

"People used to talk about each stock having a principal exchange," Daniel Mathisson, managing director in charge of a Credit Suisse Group AG (CS) division that uses computers to direct trades to the lowest-cost exchange, told Forbes.com.  "Now the trading’s going all over the place, and there is nothing to stop that trend."

These new competitors grab market share by harnessing the fastest computers in the business.