Block Trading: 2008 Is Set to Be a Pivotal Year for Innovative Technologies to Support Trading of Large Blocks. As NYSE Euronext joins with BIDS Trading to enter the US block trading venue competition, established alternative block trading venues such as Liquidnet, Pipeline and BLOCKalert are looking to strengthen their global reach and better cater to buy-side users.

Industry Alert: High Performance Trading is Stressing Data Support. As high-performance trading adds new stresses on the handling of market data and the trade messaging infrastructure, what investment firms are seeking from service providers is rapidly changing.

Spotlight: Kevin Foley, President and Chief Executive Officer, Aqua Securities. A new equities venture by Cantor Fitzgerald and eSpeed shows users undiscovered streams of liquidity.

Derivatives Trading: Orc Liquidator Enables Custom Execution Management. Orc Software’s Orc Liquidator execution management system is built for derivatives strategies for arbitrage and market making, with a focus on advanced derivatives algorithms.

On The Exchanges: Partnership Bolsters virt-x’s European Strategy. With a name change and a new technology partner, virt-x Exchange Ltd. is altering its approach to electronic blue-chip equities trading, including changing its name to SWX Europe Ltd.

The News Network: NYSE MatchPoint Readies For Launch, Sets Match Times; BNY ConvergEx’s Liquidpoint to Serve Pershing, DerivatEx; Townsend Analytics Adds On Point’s STING Smart Router; Eurex, ISE Complete Merger and Plan Joint Initiatives; Thomson TradeWeb, Dealers Partner on Execution Venue; BNY Mellon Establishes Post-Merger Asset Servicing Entity.