The message is the messages; plus other links for June 13, 2007

By: Ray Pellecchia

File Under: NYSE

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The message is the messages, folks: Automated orders push trading capacity limits -- As automated trading bombards equities markets, the networks connecting U.S. markets are being tested by overwhelming volume. Widespread adoption of computerized trading has fueled this growth, as automation not only increases the volume of trades but also the number of electronic messages sent by traders to determine price quotes and volume. But fears now exist that an unusual surge in trading -- for example, the type brought on by an unexpected event -- could paralyze U.S. market centers. An explosion in the use of algorithms, forecast to account for half of all equity trading by 2010, is raising concerns. (Reuters)

NYSE Gives Floor Brokers Access to Rival Markets (Update2) -- The New York Stock Exchange plans to help floor brokers recoup business from all-electronic rivals by easing long-standing rules barring them from trading Big Board listed shares on other markets...The decision paves the way for the floor traders to execute transactions for any stock listed by competitors, including the American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. ... The NYSE also plans to make it easier for specialists, who are responsible for handling transactions on the floor, to trade with their own capital and for floor brokers to buy and sell large blocks of stock, said Louis Pastina, an NYSE Euronext senior vice president. The NYSE intends to make its trading systems 90 percent faster over the next year. "There are a number of positive things we can do within the purview of our current rules that would make life easier,'' Pastina said in an interview. (Bloomberg)

Brokers Make Bonds Easier; More Transparency Helps Lower Bar For Small Investors -- More financial firms are making it easier for individual investors to buy bonds....At the same time, regulators are putting increased pressure on the financial industry to provide more pricing transparency to make it easier for investors to compare prices. Earlier this year, NYSE Group Inc., parent of the New York Stock Exchange, launched an electronic-trading system that provides real-time price quotes for corporate bonds issued by NYSE-listed companies. (WSJ.com)

Life is in Perpetual Beta, So Why Not Business? -- Everyone accepts that you are not perfect. You're allowed to make mistakes - hopefully not too many of them, but enough to learn and grow. In business, however, the total opposite is true. Nobody wants to see a product or service learn and grow in the open, or worse, fail. When a company releases a product or service, everyone wants, no expects it to be perfect. Who wants to fly a plane that doesn't reach it's final destination? Who wants to go to a restaurant where the service is always iffy? We constantly insist on perfection. However, the irony is businesses are made of people so how can they be perfect? (MicroPersuasion)