ELECTRONIC TRADING

UNX, a New York brokerage firm, will begin posting limit orders from its institutional trading platform directly to SuperMontage, Nasdaq's next generation trading system. UNX is among the first unregistered market makers to post liquidity directly to SuperMontage. A new rule introduced February 10 allows all broker-dealer members of the National Association of Securities Dealers to post orders directly to SuperMontage. Previously, agency brokers had to route orders through electronic communications networks (ECNs). The rule puts all NASD-member broker dealers, including order-entry firms, on equal footing.

Nasdaq Deutschland, a joint venture between the Nasdaq Stock Market and Commerzbank, comdirectbank and Dresdner and the Berliner Bourse, set March 21 as the launch date for its new trading venture. In addition, Jim Weber, CEO of Nasdaq Europe was named chairman of the management board and Axel Schubert, chairman of the Bremen Stock Exchange, was appointed as vice-chairman. Nasdaq has a 50percent stake in the venture, which initially plans to trade stocks from the DAX, MDAX, TecDAX, Nasdaq 100 and Dow Jones 30 indexes over a modified version of Nasdaq's SuperMontage trading platform.

TradeStation Group, parent company of the TradeStation Securities direct-access brokerage and TradeStation Technologies software development and subscription service, reported total revenues of $13.4 million in the 2002 fourth quarter, a 47 percent increase from 2001 revenues of $9.1 million. Brokerage revenues for the 2002 fourth quarter totaled $11 million, a 102 percent increase from $5.5 million reported for the 2001 fourth quarter. Net income for the 2002 fourth quarter was $1.9 million, as compared with a net loss of $12.7 million for 2001's fourth quarter.