ELECTRONIC TRADING

The American Stock Exchange has signed a deal to use Infosys Technologies' intra-day comparison system for equities (IDCE). The browser-based system will enable Amex participants to match trades, input new trades and resolve uncompared trades and advisories. IDCE's Amex user base will include member firms, equities brokers, specialists and market operations staff.

The London Clearing House has selected onExchange's Extensible Clearing System. The LCH plans to use ECS to clear over-the-counter power transactions executed on the European Energy Derivatives Exchange -- an energy market that is set to launch later this year. onExchange, supplier of clearing and transaction processing technology, has been working with the LCH for more than a year to develop a new clearing system for energy products.

optionsXpress has launched Xspreads, a trading application that is being marketed as a virtual electronic-communications network targeted at retail-options investors. Through Xspreads, optionsXpress hopes to bring real-time transparency to retail-options investors, by providing them with the ability to see thousands of open options spread trade orders. Xspreads is available to optionsXpress customers, market-makers, broker/dealers and exchanges with electronic spread execution capabilities.

The Chicago Stock Exchange has named David Herron it chief executive officer. Herron -- who has served as a member/specialist at the Boston, Cincinnati and Pacific stock exchanges during his 25-year career -- most recently worked as the vice president of listed equities for Schwab Capital Markets.