March 5, 2007 Issue Abstract

To purchase this issue of Global Investment Technology, please contact Terry Tiangco at (212) 370-3700, x287 or e-mail ttiangco@globalinv.com

The Electronic Marketplace: Rise of Dark Pools Spotlights Critical Issues of Trading Size, Speed and Price Transparency. Facing the challenges of a market fragmented by alternative trading systems (ATSs) and other emerging, electronic trading venues, buy-side firms are turning to more complex algorithms that can tap not only dark pools of liquidity, but also potential sources of internalized liquidity as they appear when Reg NMS becomes fully effective later this year. Some sell-side firms are developing customized algorithms to anchor buy-side relationships.

Industry Alert: Deutsche Börse Cuts Latency To Better Compete. The Deutsche Börse’s enhancement of trading speed and lowered latency through a collaborative service agreement, alongside improvements to its Xetra trading platform, represents a key effort by a European exchange to catch up with algorithmic trading advances already made in the US.

Focus on Best Execution: Execution Quality Study Puts Nasdaq Q, BATS On Top. The newest OTC trading venue, the BATS ECN, makes a strong showing in a study of trade execution quality conducted by consultancy Celent, ranking as the best in execution speed and seventh best in pricing, while Nasdaq’s Q electronic order book ranks best in pricing. A companion study examined execution quality on the NYSE.

Spotlight: Kevin Morrison, Managing Director and Head of Algorithmic & Program Trading Sales, Piper Jaffray & Co.

Liquidity Management Solutions: SmartTrade Brings Liquidity Management Up to Date. Smart Trade Technologies offers a liquidity management solution called SmartTrade that is of value to large buy-side firms that need to navigate various liquidity pools to achieve best execution.

Securities Trading: Fidelity, Lehman Tie a Systems Knot Algorithmically. To give their respective customers access to a broader pool of liquidity, Fidelity Brokerage Company and Lehman Brothers have linked their alternative trading systems.