* Morgan Stanley merged its equity trading and fixed income trading operations. At the same time, it separated the sales functions of both groups into a separate group.
* The National Stock Exchange started trading NYSE- and Amex-listed securities on its new Blade trading platform. Previously, it traded only Nasdaq names.
* A seat on the Chicago Board Options Exchange sold for a record high price of $1.95 million recently. During 2006, the highest price paid for a CBOE seat was $1,775,000. The lowest price paid was $850,000.
* The Boston Stock Exchange plans to demutualize and become a for-profit organization. Its 203 members will receive shares in a new holding company in exchange for their membership.
* Nasdaq reduced its liquidity-taker and outbound routing fees for some of its most active customers from 27 cents per 100 shares to 26 cents.
* BIDS Trading signed up six new investors: Bank of America, Bear Stearns, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and Knight Capital Group. The alternative trading system now counts every bulge bracket firm as an investor.
* The NYFIX Millennium crossing network matched 50 million shares on a recent day in February. The single-day record follows a record January, when the system matched an average of 35 million shares per day.
* Merrill Lynch bought a stake in BATS Trading, the fast-growing ECN. Merrill is the fourth big trading house to take a minority interest in BATS. The others are Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and Lime Brokerage.
