"This is a milestone for the Amex and we appreciate the SEC's feedback and hard work on our rules for AEMI," said Neal Wolkoff, Chairman and CEO. "We are pleased to work with the SEC towards the next stage of the process to obtain approval for our new hybrid market structure. The AEMI platform is state-of-the-art technology and will unite the best qualities of electronic and auction markets."
The AEMI trading platform has been in development since April 2004. The system will contain functionality for both pre- and post-Regulation NMS compliance that will allow AEMI to be rolled out, subject to SEC approval, in the fourth quarter and insure a smooth migration of Reg NMS functionality by February 2007, the timetable released by the SEC for SRO implementation of Reg NMS.
Amex's proposed market structure will offer market participants a greatly expanded range of automated transaction services across equities and exchange traded funds and will combine the dedicated liquidity provision of an auction market for times of order imbalances, complex trades, or when natural liquidity cannot be found. The Exchange believes that 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 enhance the Amex's competitiveness in a post-Reg NMS environment.
The AEMI rule text is available on the Amex website at: www.amex.com and on the SEC website at: http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro/amex.shtml or http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro/amex/2006/34-54145.pdf and is expected to be published in the Federal Register within the next two weeks.
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 188 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.
