Brokerage

With the Securities and Exchange Commission's new rule banning naked access in place, an arms race has developed among trading systems vendors.

Many correspondents, who once dreaded changing clearing brokers, are no longer tied to your platform and products. They can, and often will, go elsewhere.

Getco announced it has appointed Jon Ross as the market maker's chief technology officer. Ross will oversee the firm's strategic technology platform and the development of its suite of trading technology and execution services products.

Drive for five. That's Deutsche Bank's ambition for U.S. equities, to leapfrog into the highest echelon of brokers and be among the top five firms, according to Andre Crawford-Brunt, global head of equity trading at the firm.

Prop shops are on the rise. With the financial crisis receding into history and new regulations targeting banks, the industry is witnessing a rebound in the number of new proprietary trading firms. And this could just be the beginning.

The Germans have it. The British have it. The French have it. The Swiss, the Italians and the Japanese all have it. Now the Americans are going to get it. Next February, the U.S. stock market will start smoothing out the fluctuations in its stocks under a "limit up, limit down" regime. Throughout the day, exchanges will calculate upper and lower price limits for individual securities, and prevent trades from occurring outside those bands.

Howard Tai, a longtime trader turned consultant, believes that if a money manager is vigilant with its FX trading, it will do its clients right with higher returns

Commissions paid by U.S. institutions dropped for the third straight year, down 6 percent for domestic equities, according to a recent Greenwich Associates study of the buyside.

A little bit of nostalgia in the high-tech trading world is a good thing. That was the thinking of Doreen Mogavero, chief executive and principal of Mogavero Lee & Co., a New York Stock Exchange-based floor brokerage, when she decided to bring back a piece of the fabled exchange's history and reopened the 90-year-old member's smoke shop.

Christopher Nagy has hung up his green jacket and left TD Ameritrade to launch his own firm.