The AEMI trading platform, which has been in development since April 2004, will be rolled out with the implementation of Regulation NMS in June 2006.
"We are anticipating great advances to our equity and exchange traded fund markets with the development of the AEMI system and we fully expect to qualify as an automated trading system under Regulation NMS," said Neal Wolkoff, Chairman and CEO. "AEMI will bring the Amex to the forefront of technology and make it an even more competitive marketplace."
Amex's proposed hybrid market structure offers market participants automated execution combined with the dedicated liquidity provision of an auction market for times of order imbalances, complex trades, or when natural liquidity cannot be found. The fusion of automated execution and the auction market will meet the future needs of Amex customers - the investing public, institutional traders, liquidity providers and the Exchange's listed companies - and will ensure that the Exchange will be competitive in the post-Reg NMS environment.
AEMI is an independent, electronic trading platform that will support all of the products currently offered by Amex -- equities, ETFs, options, and bonds. AEMI is a modern trading platform that offers sub-second execution, scalable capacity, and fault-tolerant redundancy.
About American Stock Exchange
The American Stock Exchange® (Amex®) is the only primary exchange that offers trading across a full range of equities, options and exchange traded funds (ETFs), including structured products and HOLDRSSM. In addition to its role as a national equities market, the Amex is the pioneer of the ETF, responsible for bringing the first domestic product to market in 1993. Leading the industry in ETF listings, the Amex lists 169 ETFs to date. The Amex is also one of the largest options exchanges in the U.S., trading options on broad-based and sector indexes as well as domestic and foreign stocks.
