Electronic-Trading Newsflashes

The New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) reports that over 80,000 orders have been completed by its Electronic Order Routing (EOR) system since deployment in March 2002. Terming this ian all-time-usage high,i NYBOT says the customized routing-system allows users to send orders directly to the NYBOT floor via the Internet, their own order-routing system, or phone. In either case, floor members execute the order through the open-outcry system. EOR also provides faster order flow to the floor, more timely confirmation of trade executions, order tracking and audit-trail capabilities. The EOR system compliments NYBOTis Automated Trading Card (ATC), a hand-held trading device used by traders in the pit. EOR is averaging approximately 2,000 orders per week and is deployed in all of the exchangeis soft-commodity products.

Stockholm-based institutional agency-broker Neonet has expanded its electronic-equity-execution services by adding the Lisbon exchange (Euronext Lisbon) via NeoNetis membership with Euronext. It also introduced execution in Swiss equities via virt-x o the home exchange for Swiss blue-chip stocks, such as Novartis, Roche and Nestle. virt-x is the London-based international arm of the SWX Group. NeoNet also augmented its execution capabilities on the New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange through integration to the NeoNet system. Clients now have integrated and transparent access on 15 exchanges. In addition to Lisbon, clients can trade through NeoNetis exchange membership on exchanges in London, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Milan, virt-x, Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen and Oslo.

With the migration of electronic trading picking up momentum, Ambiron acquired Chicago-based Tekom. Details of the transaction were not disclosed. Tekom builds and maintains secure, reliable screen-based order-entry systems for access to both electronic and open-outcry markets. The purchase positions Ambiron to offer a wide array of information-security and infrastructure services to electronic-trading firms and electronic exchanges. Ambiron will also offer 24-hour, seven-day-a-week help-desk services to financial-services clients. Privately owned Tekom provides network consulting and monitoring services to firms that specialize in commodity trading. Tekomis president Mike Persico will become a partner in Ambiron and head up the companyis business development efforts in the financial-services vertical.

Lava Trading Inc., a developer of direct-access trading- technology for the U.S. equities markets, is building a platform to enter the foreign-exchange business. iWeire building a very sophisticated high-end foreign-exchange platform which is neutral from the standpoint of aggregating liquidity pools and is positioned to serve both the buy side and the sell side,i says Richard Korhammer, chairman and chief executive officer, Lava, in an interview with Wall Street & Technology. Korhammer says itis always been Lavais intention over the years to enter new security classes. However, both Korhammer and David Ogg, head of LavaFX, declined to give details on how the product will work with existing FX-electronic markets such as FXall, Hotspot FXi and Currenex. iIts safe to say weire going to show people the best ways to buy foreign exchange at any give moment in time Oe from not only a speed but a cost perspective,i says Ogg, who is spearheading the effort with Mark Smith, vice president, LavaFX. Meanwhile, Ogg has put together an FX management and development team, including the recent hire of Bob Savage, as director of global FX sales. Savage is a 13-year veteran of Microsoft where he served the companyis top Wall Street customers. Lava expects to launch the product in a few months.