Boston, MA, USA October 5, 2006

An extensive study from Celent compares and ranks execution venues for Nasdaq stocks.

In a study that analyzes data for almost 2 billion orders and almost 200 billion shares, Celent compares and ranks the leading market centers. In terms of prices achieved for incoming orders, Instinet was ranked first, while Goldman Sachs offered the fastest execution times. In terms of overall performance, taking into account both execution speed and prices, E*TRADE ranked top.

Price Ranking		Speed Ranking		Overall
1	Instinet	1	Goldman Sachs	1	E*Trade
2	E*Trade	2	ArcaEx	2=	Inet
3	Bear Stearns	3	Nasdaq MC	2=	Instinet
4	ATD	4	Inet	4	Brut
5	UBS Securities	5	Direct Edge ECN	5	National Financial
Source: Celent

In general, electronic communication networks (ECNs) offered the fastest execution times, but market makers offered significantly more price improvement. However, for larger orders, ECNs were actually able to outperform market makers for price as well.

According to Octavio Marenzi, author of the study, "We have conducted this study a number of times over the course of the past two years, and it is surprising how consistently certain execution venues are able to outperform others. The top five slots are typically occupied by more or less the same handful of firms."

Note: Size of circle corresponds to number of shares executed

A table of contents is available online. The 37-page report contains 22 charts and six tables.