Made in America Entertainment, Inc.(fka MAEI)

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I'm just guessing but who knows? Dark Pools? They didn't fix that issue yet? LOL SMH

DOWJONES Exchanges Renew Push Against Dark Pools
Exchanges Renew Push Against Dark Pools
Last Update: 12/18/2012 1:05:14 PM
By Jacob Bunge




The world's largest stock exchanges are intensifying calls for tighter oversight of rival private trading platforms they say are distorting global equity markets.
They want U.S. and European regulators to make so-called dark pools--which privately match up stock trades away from public markets--subject to the same standards as regulated exchanges.
A fresh lobbying push is being planned as NYSE Euronext (NYX) and Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (NDAQ) executives warned U.S. senators at a Tuesday hearing about the rising influence of off-exchange share trading on investors and listed companies.
The initiative is being spearheaded by the World Federation of Exchanges, an industry lobby group that includes NYSE, Nasdaq, Deutsche Boerse AG (DB1.XE, DBOEF) and Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. (0388.HK) among its members.
"As licensed exchanges we serve the public benefit and the public good," said Huseyin Erkan, the newly appointed chief executive of the exchange group. "We have full responsibility over surveillance and trading practices, whereas other trading venues don't have that."
Mr. Erkan, who formerly headed the Istanbul Stock Exchange, has warned that fragmentation of stock trading is hurting the basic market function of setting fair and transparent prices, with "serious implications for the health of the markets."
Exchange groups, themselves under fire for missteps such as the flubbed flotation of Facebook Inc. (FB) and a series of technical problems, have revamped the WFE and are highlighting what they see as their central role as critical price-setters of stocks and pipelines to investor capital.
Investors' faith in the structure of the stock market has waned over the last two years, with one-third now expressing "very weak" confidence in the system, according to a survey by consultancy Tabb Group.
Mr. Erkan, who is lining up meetings with policymakers and regulators in the U.S., U.K. and Europe over the coming months, wants to focus attention on what he called an "unlevel playing field" that has allowed smaller, more cheaply run competitors to eat into exchanges' core business of matching stock trades.
Exchanges have raised alarms over such players' increasing influence, warning that average investors suffer when a larger chunk of trading takes place on private markets, because there are fewer transactions setting the publicly
private markets, because there are fewer transactions setting the publicly available prices offered on exchanges. Exchange companies also have objected to what they see as lighter regulation for dark pool platforms, enabling such markets to more easily compete against stock exchanges that must invest in market supervision.
In the U.S., share-trading activity on private venues has more than doubled over the past five years, according to data compiled by Rosenblatt Securities Inc. Business in so-called "dark pools" and other off-exchange venues in the U.S. peaked earlier this year at more than 34% of all domestic stock trading, according to the firm, and exchange officials say certain stocks now see more than half their volume traded privately.
In Europe, the monthly value of shares traded on private venues has risen from near zero in early 2009 to approximately EUR20 billion currently, according to data from Fidessa Group plc. The value of shares traded on European exchanges has meanwhile dwindled from nearly EUR1 trillion to a little over EUR500 billion over that period.
Dark pools and similar ventures have made less headway in Asia and the Middle East, where some exchanges still enjoy regulatory protections against competitor trading venues.
Banks and brokers have defended their private stock markets as necessary competitors to exchanges, which over the past decade have converted to profit-seeking enterprises responsible for delivering growth to shareholders. More-sophisticated off-exchange markets have enabled big investors like mutual funds and pensions to make large stock orders without alerting faster-moving traders that populate exchanges, and may drive up the price of a major transaction, according to brokers.
"You can't say that one type of venue can service all the constituents well," said Seth Merrin, chief executive of Liquidnet, which runs one of the world's largest alternative stock-trading venues. Mr. Merrin said that exchanges' embrace of high-speed trading firms has driven big investors toward private stock markets, while raising new concerns for companies considering a share listing.
Mr. Erkan wants to tap his member exchanges' troves of trading data to make the case for stricter requirements for alternative stock-trading platforms and to dispel what he said were "myths" around the practices and influence of high-frequency trading firms, which have drawn scrutiny around the globe.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 18, 2012 13:05 ET (18:05 GMT)