Our Ed Boyle talks options with Sarah Rudolph (John Lothian Newsletter Options)

Chinese real estate portal SouFun files for IPO on NYSE (Australian)

U.S. listing still appeals as more Chinese companies go public at home (China Wealth/Forbes)

The press isn't talking us into a recession (Real Time Economics/WSJ)

NYSE Euronext acquires Corporate Board Member, expands director/c-suite reach and service offerings (NYX)

Barclays ETN+ S&P VEQTOR™ ETN list on NYSE Arca (NYX)

BlackRock's BuildAmerica Bond Trust raises $1 billion (EMII)

All from MarketBeat/WSJ: The quietest Monday in the markets all year. And the worst August for stocks since 2001. But it was also a golden August for gold. And if it makes you feel any better, 1 Sept. was the best September start for stocks since 1998.

The decline of the P/E ratio (WSJ)

Women in tech and women entrepreneurs discussion (A VC)

On the Exchanges blog: NYSE Amex cuts price for trading Nasdaq issues; Guess? fashions and jobs; Dr. King's march for opportunity goes on ; and August index performance highlights

Today in NYSE History (NYX)
3 Sept 1929 -- The 1920s bull market reached its peak - the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 381.17.

I was wondering if there was a Hindenburg Omen in 1929, but then checked and found that the Hindenburg disaster didn't occur until 1937. Perhaps in 1929 there was a Duesenberg Omen, named after the car they nicknamed "the Duesy?"

No disrespect to my technical analyst friend. Hey, what's a week without a bad pun from your humble blogger?

Have a great weekend, everyone, and a long Labor Day weekend at that for those of you in the U.S.

The summer holiday month of August turned out to be a positive month only for Portugal, where the PSI 20 Index rose 0.30%, helped by the performance of Portugal Telecom. All other blue-chip indices showed decreases, with the NYSE U.S. 100 Index shedding 4.22%. The CAC 40 Index and AEX Index lost 4.29% and 4.18% respectively. The BEL 20 Index showed a 2.38% decrease for August.

The downward movement in August was almost compensated fully on the first trading day of September. There is still a lot of volatility in the market, which can be observed for instance in the CAC volatility, which is currently at a level of 29.43%, up 3% in comparison to the end of July.

Contrary to the blue-chip indices, the European small-cap indices had a positive month. The BEL Small and Amsterdam's AScX gained 2.49%.

Almost all sectors were down this month, except for the Portuguese and Dutch telecom indices; these were up 7.12% and 8.62% respectively. Furthermore, the gold indices wrote positive figures, which is typical for bearish months as investors seem to seek a safe haven. The Junior Gold Bugs, for instance, rose 14% in August.

The full report is here.

Index News

On August 11, four new NYSE indices were launched to track the performance of the US Treasury Futures Market:

* NYSE US 2 Year Treasury Futures Index - USTTWO
* NYSE US 5 Year Treasury Futures Index - USTFIV
* NYSE US 10 Year Treasury Futures Index - USTTEN
* NYSE US Long Bond Treasury Futures Index - USTLBD

As previously announced, our European blue-chip indices rules are adjusting as of September 20 to further harmonize the methodology and rules sets. For more information please see the press release.

NYSE Amex Tape C Inverted Pricing: Effective September 1, 2010, NYSE Amex equities will lower the take fee for all customers to $0.0013 per share from $0.0021 per share in Nasdaq-Listed (Tape C) securities priced above $1, including displayed and non-displayed orders. The client rebate for adding liquidity remains $0.0019.

The NYSE Amex market model in Tape C securities offers:
-- One of the lowest take fees in Tape C securities;
-- Designated Market Makers (DMMs) for each NASDAQ security;
-- One or more Supplemental Liquidity Providers (SLPs) assigned to most securities;
-- NYSE Amex Parity and Priority model.

Benefits to NYSE Amex trading in NASDAQ names include:
-- Quote and depth obligations for the Designated Market Makers lead to tighter markets and greater liquidity;
-- Parity allocation that enables the DMM, any floor broker and the first order in the exchange’s order book to share execution priority at a particular price level;
-- An additional market destination providing liquidity in Tape C securities with a differentiated pricing structure.

So starting tomorrow, point your routers to NYSE Amex for trading Nasdaq issues, and gain these benefits while cutting your trading costs.

Maurice Marciano, chairman and founder of Guess?, Inc., was at NYSE this morning for the company's investor day and the launch of its GUESS Seductive fragrance. His conversation with CNBC's Erin Burnett, embedded above, focused less on fashion and style than about the economic downturn's impact on discretionary spending habits.

Women in America, more so than in Europe or Asia, "buy what they need rather than what they want," he said.

He added: "The thing that we need, and everybody knows that, is that we need the job market to really start again, to pick up. Once people are going to be secure about their job and knowing they have income, they will start spending again. Right now they are shy about spending and we cannot blame them."

Also, please note that these comments were made on 3 August; some of the initiatives discussed here progressed further since then.

As always, I welcome your thoughts. Here goes:

Duncan Niederauer - NYSE Euronext - CEO and Director
In General
...I'm going to start with slide 3 in the deck, and just hit a few highlights on that slide. I think you can see from the slide and from the press release this morning, we had a very strong second quarter. We're growing our derivatives business. We're stabilizing our Cash Equities business, and we are providing innovative technology solutions in that business. Our results, which reflect the continued trend of improving financial performance, were driven by stronger trading volumes, increased revenue generation from our new initiatives and continued cost discipline. ...

Derivatives Volume
Firstly, our Derivatives segment benefited from record trading volumes as well as the addition of NYSE Liffe Clearing. During the month of May, we executed an average of 13 million contracts per day across our global Derivatives businesses, driving a 34% increase in net revenue, with an increase in our operating margin to 62%, up from 42% the prior year. We were the largest US equities options exchange for the second consecutive quarter.

Cash and Listings
Turning to Cash & Listings, in the first half of 2010, we continue to see strong demand for our listing venues, both in terms of transfers and new listings. On the execution side, we are continuing to focus on stability and profitability of this business. In the US, our market share in Tape A is at 37%, up from 35% in the first quarter, and our share in Europe is holding steady at 74%.

Additionally, on July 13, we launched trading on Tape C stocks on an Unlisted Trading Privilege basis over the NYSE Amex platform. Trading began with 10 issues, and now is expanded to approximately 675 NASDAQ-listed issues, and we've seen some positive market share developments.

Technology Services and Products
Lastly, our technology business benefited from the addition of NYFIX and improved software sales, driving a 29% increase in revenue and an increase in operating margin to 19%. I will walk you through the profiles of several deals that we've signed in the past few months later in the presentation. They are representative of the enterprise-level dialogs that we are having with market participants, encouraging them to leverage our technology to help them run their businesses more efficiently....

Before I move to slide 4, let me touch briefly on a few select business highlights for the quarter.

Clearinghouses
Building upon our success with the launch of NYSE Liffe Clearing last July, we have announced our intention to build two new clearinghouses in London and Paris for our European Derivatives and Cash businesses. The economics for clearing are very favorable, and it is our intention to have the new clearinghouses live by mid-to-late '12.

Semi-Mutualizations, NYPC
We continue to await regulatory approval of our NYSE Amex Options and NYPC semi-mutualizations.

In terms of NYPC, we now have a full management team in place. The intensive regulatory review and approval process for NYPC continues to make progress, and we appreciate all the regulatory agencies for the substantial resources they are committing to thoroughly analyze this innovative new clearing model. Given the recent focus on clearinghouses and risk in the newly enacted financial regulatory reform bill, regulators are being appropriately diligent in their analysis and we are still hoping for regulatory approvals later in the fall.

Consolidating Surveillance
Our agreement with FINRA, under which they assume responsibility for performing the market surveillance and enforcement functions previously conducted by NYSE regulation, is effective, and we believe this agreement is an important step toward consolidated market surveillance, the need for which was highlighted in the events of May 6.

Data Centers
I'm pleased to report that our data center migration is on track. We're establishing the liquidity hubs of the future, and Mike will address the timing of the incremental depreciation and amortization for the second half of 2010. ...

Summary of Business Highlights
In summary, while we're pleased with our strong results for the quarter, driven by higher volumes across most of our venues and a growing base of recurring Technology Services revenue, we still have much to do. We are focused on executing against our long-term strategy of operating the most meaningful capital markets, creating even broader and deeper networks of
connectivity and delivering innovative products to our expanding client base. We have and will continue to redefine what an exchange is in the 21st century. Now please turn to slide 4.

Priorities
The priorities on this slide highlight our goal of creating a community premium, using our scale and scope to benefit not only our own business, but our customers' businesses as well. We can achieve this through initiatives and offerings like co-location, co-branding, advocacy, and our global distribution network.

At the center of the company and in support of our three businesses is UTP, our globally integrated and scalable trading platform; an unrivaled global connectivity network and customer gateway; a focus on clearing, which will take on an even greater importance in '11 and '12; and two brand-new world-class data centers set for launch in September and October of this year.

Technology Wins
Turning to slide 5, we have several recent NYSE technology wins which reflect the growing interest in our full managed solutions capabilities. The technology business, as I alluded to earlier, has performed well to date, and approximately 80% of the revenues in this business are recurring.

On the exchange partnership side of the business, we continue to land large client deals. As you will recall, last year, we signed a partnership with the Qatar Exchange to build their Cash and Derivatives platforms. And just a few weeks ago, we signed a multiyear eight-figure deal with the Warsaw Stock Exchange to migrate WSE's Cash and Derivatives markets to NYSE Technologies Universal Trading Platform. In addition, we plan to collaborate with the WSE on other mutually beneficial business initiatives.

Regarding the more traditional client side, you will note on the chart a few examples of deals that we have recently signed. Despite reports of slowing technologyspend, we are seeing strong interest from the broker dealer community investing in leading-edge trading technology. This is a welcome sign, especially after a slow 2009 that saw a decent pullback in technology
spend.

Our customers are looking to leverage our full solution set. We believe the deals shown on this slide represent just the beginning of our ability to deliver innovative products, and these opportunities will only get larger as we deliver.

Supporting many of these deals are our data centers. There is a lot of customer focus on the upcoming Mahwah and Basildon go-live dates, set for later this year.

Strategy
On slide 6, we've included a simple strategy statement to help you better understand where we are going. Our aspiration is to lead our industry and redefine what it means to be an exchange in the 21st century.

To achieve this, our mission will be simply to empower the world's capital markets community to innovate and collaborate. To achieve this, our core objectives will be to operate the most important capital markets, connect the members of the community through our ever-growing network, deliver innovative products to our continually expanding client base, and to enable customers to run their businesses more profitably by using our technology and the scale that UTP and the data centers deliver.

We have already gone a long way toward redefining what an exchange is, and we've moved from being just an operator of markets to much more. As many companies in other industries have done, we're moving across the value chain to improve our competitive position. The more customers and partners we have, the greater the network effect, which further validates the relevance of our community. In short, it is about getting more customers for our products and services and more products and services for our customers.

From our perspective, we think the sum of the parts is being undervalued because we believe that our unique collection of assets and global reach offers us great revenue and cost synergies, which will ultimately yield the community premium that I mentioned earlier.

Advocacy on Market and Regulatory Reforms
Finally, for me on slide 7, you will see a number of current issues where we are doing our best to demonstrate leadership. We will not go through each of these bullets individually this morning, but will highlight a few important ones.

While Congress considered financial regulatory reform registration, we were very active in advocating for ourselves, and more importantly, on behalf of our listed companies. We believe that the Dodd-Frank Act will solidify and bolster our opportunities for future growth, particularly in derivatives.

Going forward, the Act mandates hundreds of agency rulemakings, and we are already analyzing and prioritizing these rules and expect to play an active advocacy role on behalf of our clients, but also are committed to being an active participant with the regulators who are going to have to write all these rules.

In terms of market structure, the events of May 6 put a spotlight on the need for improvements to our equity markets. This has created opportunities for us to demonstrate the benefits that the NYSE model brings to issuers, investors, and the markets. We testified twice before Congress on market structure matters, and we've spent considerable time with the SEC, the CFTC and the joint advisory committee. We believe these opportunities have enhanced our standing with legislative and regulatory policy makers.

More broadly, our efforts to advocate on behalf of our issuers and to be an influencer of public policy continue to be an important part of our value proposition. We're working hard to represent our listed companies on issues like corporate governance, proxy access, and Sarbanes-Oxley reform, as well as our continued opposition on a tax on transactions to ensure that investors' interests are protected as well.

Turning to Europe, regulators are also embarking on a plethora of legislative initiatives on both market structure and financial regulation. Two years after its implementation, European policy makers are working on a comprehensive review of MiFID, although we don't expect firm proposals until early next year. We are hopeful that officials in Europe will learn some important lessons from the market fragmentation that has occurred in the US and we'll avoid heading down the same path. We will also be working with European legislators to ensure an adequate assessment of the increasingly high level of nontransparent trading. We believe that a proper analysis of this issue calls for priority to be given to a more transparent process and increased investor protection.

Derivatives regulation is also a key issue in Europe as has been the case in the US. The European Commission will publish legislative proposals in September in keeping with the G-20 commitments before central clearing of OTC derivatives trades. It is our understanding that the Commission will present proposals next year as part of MiFID revision to bring more OTC derivatives onto central lit platforms. ...

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

May 6
Roger Freeman - Barclays Capital - Analyst
...I guess going back to...May 6, what role -- maybe Duncan and/or Larry, did market data sort of -- would you say play in the whole thing, in terms of any lag in that? Because it seems like pretty much all the other exchanges declared self-help against Arca, and it sounded like maybe there were some delays in Wombat. I'm guessing -- my question is, do you have spending to do to enhance capacity there? Or does that get taken care of with the new data center?

Larry Leibowitz - NYSE Euronext - COO
Well first, not all the exchanges declared self-help against Arca. I think that's just flat out wrong. What happened was NASDAQ declared self-help against Arca, which lasted 20 minutes. We believe that was due to a server latency on about 20 symbols that lasted five minutes in Tape C. The other exchanges didn't -- they declared self-help for about seven minutes. That was due to the fact that some of the prices they were sending us violated our price bands. And when we spoke to them on the phone, they cleared that up relatively quickly.

Our direct feeds did not experience latency as far as we know in terms of market data. There were some issues potentially on the SIP, meaning the consolidated feed, but probably that 85% or 90% of our volume actually comes from direct feeds. That's another misinformation that is generally in the market, which is that, in general, consolidated feeds go to retail customers, and people who are doing it with their eyeballs, most volume actually is generated from direct feeds.

That said, that period, we experienced a tripling of quotes and trades during that burst of about five minutes when the May 6 event occurred. Those were record volumes of traffic. And I think that we always keep an eye on capacity. It has made -- we were actually in the process of some capacity expansion on the May 6 date that has subsequently been completed. I think it's something that we are always careful about. Volumes are down a bit again after the second quarter; I think everybody has seen July, but that's partly seasonally. But I think it's something that we are just always cognizant of and always reviewing. ...

NYPC
Celeste Brown - Morgan Stanley - Analyst
Good morning. Once you get regulatory approval for NYPC, how long will it take you to launch the service?

Duncan Niederauer
I don't think it will take that long; just to manage your expectations, two or three threads here. One is, obviously, the technology build that had to be done, that's been going at pace; that's ahead of schedule now that the regulatory approval has been a little bit slower than we would have anticipated a few months ago. So the technology work for this is well underway and will be delivered I would say now comfortably ahead of any approval we would get because remember the comment period will be roughly 90 days.

So, assuming that there is no glitches there, which we don't anticipate, and that the clients we want connected or who are already in the process of connecting, are connecting, we would be able to turn this on very, very quickly after approval.

Realistically, I think we have to start thinking about this in our own minds as a January of 2011 event, because even if we went out for comment this month and got all the requisite approvals by the end of the year, I wouldn't anticipate that we would launch something like this the first or second week of December. I think we would probably get advice from our clients that would say let's come out of the gate after the new year, ready to go. So we would suggest that, other than the kind of calendar stuff I just talked about, the technology and connectivity, which would be the other two things you would want to have ready, will absolutely be ready by the time we get the approval. ...

Over-the-Counter Derivatives
Alex Kramm - UBS - Analyst
...I want to shift gears quickly to maybe your over-the-counter strategy. You mentioned the Dodd-Frank Act earlier. So I'm wondering how you could really fit in here if I look at maybe the short-term opportunities clearing; you don't really have any sort of real assets at this point. So maybe that leaves trading or new listed products.

And then perhaps, and maybe this is like a real potential for you as well here, is the technology side. Is there maybe an opportunity to run some of these swap execution facilities or host some of the data centers. So maybe in general, how are you thinking about your way to participate in the over-the-counter to exchange migration?

Duncan Niederauer
...I think you've got three interesting topics probably in there and I would put them in the reverse order in terms of near-term relevance for us. I think given the success we're having, hosting various facilities and components of other firms' infrastructure in the liquidity centers, I would say there's a good near-term opportunity for us to at least be a provider of some technology services there.

On the listing side, I suppose there's an interesting near-term opportunity to list some of these products. I don't know how near-term it's going to be because I think it's going to take a while for all this to be codified. But also, I continue to be of the belief that there's opportunities in clearing and market data before there are opportunities in trading. So I think there might be some kind of a data opportunity for us, but I don't know how much of an opportunity there's going to be for listing these various products because I don't think they're going to be that actively traded in the near term.

Lastly, you're absolutely right. I think our view is to be a force in OTC derivative clearing, you need to own the assets. I think we are on the way to owning potential assets with the clearinghouse build-outs in Europe and the NYPC buildout here in the US. But we said publicly before, short of actually owning those assets, it's difficult to play a role if you don't have the clearinghouse asset. So, as you would correctly expect, that's part of the reason behind us trying to build out some of these clearing assets because it's then limitless, the products we can clear in those houses.

Cash Equities Market Share
Ken Worthington - JPMorgan Chase & Co. - Analyst
Good morning. I know this is a small business for you, but market share and Cash Equities has stabilized in the US. Do you think you are generally at equilibrium? And if so, what does it take to see market share shifts from here? And in Europe, how close are the cash markets to price and market share equilibrium?

Larry Leibowitz
Yes, that's a good question. You know, I think that we're at a temporary equilibrium where you sort of swing a couple percentage points in either direction in the US. But there are new entrants coming in, in terms of models. NASDAQ just announced another strategy with their Philly model. There are going to be innovations around here. This is a competitive business, and we don't sit here and assume that we are where we are. We know this is just going to be a fight that doesn't end.

I think in Europe it's much more of a developing situation. It will depend partly on the results of the MiFID review. It will partly depend on developments in clearing, whether that's consolidation or interoperability. And so we're earlier in the game there. So, I think that that's how we view both of those markets.

Duncan Niederauer
Right. And the only thing I might add on the US side to what Larry said is I suppose there's a greater than zero chance that with the concept release out for comment and everyone still assessing what happened in the wake of May 6, it's possible, Ken, that you could see a couple of -- I don't think they would be monumental changes, but I think you could see a couple of incremental changes that certainly would help change that equilibrium a little bit, potentially, in our favor. But we're not sitting here expecting any major changes that would kind of create a new order. ...

Qatar Exchange to introduce NYSE Euronext's Universal Trading Platform (Gulf Times)

The decline of the P/E ratio (WSJ)

Women in tech and women entrepreneurs discussion (A VC)

On the Exchanges blog: Dr. King's march for opportunity goes on

So thanks, Mr. Beck, for prompting me to take a renewed look at Dr. King's speech. The text and video of Dr. King's speech still electrify today and I think his words have special meaning and place a special obligation on those of us in the financial business.

"The full name of the event at which King spoke...was the 'March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom," Eugene Robinson writes in the Washington Post, adding, "Among its organizers was labor leader A. Philip Randolph,...who gave a speech describing the injustice of 'a society in which 6 million black and white people are unemployed and millions more live in poverty.'"

Robinson adds, "From the beginning, King's activism and leadership were aimed at securing not just equal justice but equal opportunity as well. When he was assassinated in 1968, King was in the midst of a Poor People's Campaign aimed at bettering the economic condition of all underprivileged Americans, regardless of race."

Indeed, much of Dr. King's most famous speech is framed in financial and economic terms:

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves, who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we’ve come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed to the “Unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

This powerful idea -- that freedom and justice are inextricably linked with economic opportunity -- made Dr. King's message universal and impactful, in 1963 and today. As we seek to recover from the most severe economic crisis in decades, we look for ways to repair the social fabric of jobs and investment that has torn apart by the crisis.

The financial industry and regulators have a critical role to play in this effort. The industry must work to promote financial literacy as a means of helping the public gain understanding and confidence in managing their own economic lives. I'm proud that NYSE Euronext has created the personal-finance website Money Sense and that that we support Operation Hope's literacy efforts, among other initiatives, and much more should and will be done by ourselves and many others across the business.

As regulators implement new reforms, they must strike a balance between mandating proper practices and fostering an environment of entrepreneurship and growth that creates new jobs.

And more than anything else, the industry must work to regain the public's trust. Those who are evaluating an investment or even a career in finance -- particularly those who historically have been underprivileged -- will walk away if they distrust the system, and we are all the poorer for that. So we must work to not just comply with the new rules and regulations, but to go beyond them: re-dedicate ourselves to ethical conduct, de-mystify the financial process, and re-connect with the community.

"Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning," Dr. King said in his speech. Exactly right: history never ends, we make it every day by what we do and what we fail to do. His words should animate us to re-double our efforts to create opportunity, the engine of our free society. The March for Jobs and Freedom did not end in 1963, and it's up to us to pick it up and move it forward today.

So thanks, Mr. Beck, for prompting me to take a renewed look at Dr. King's speech. The event resonates today and I think it has special meaning and puts a special obligation on those of us in the financial business.

"The full name of the event at which King spoke...was the 'March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom," Eugene Robinson writes in the Washington Post, adding, "Among its organizers was labor leader A. Philip Randolph,...who gave a speech describing the injustice of 'a society in which 6 million black and white people are unemployed and millions more live in poverty.'"

Robinson adds, "From the beginning, King's activism and leadership were aimed at securing not just equal justice but equal opportunity as well. When he was assassinated in 1968, King was in the midst of a Poor People's Campaign aimed at bettering the economic condition of all underprivileged Americans, regardless of race."

Indeed, much of Dr. King's most famous speech is framed in financial and economic terms:

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves, who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we’ve come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed to the
“Unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is obvious today that
America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

This powerful idea -- that freedom and justice are inextricably linked with economic opportunity -- made Dr. King's message universal and impactful, and it resonates today. As we seek to recover from the most severe economic crisis in decades, we look for ways to repair the social fabric of jobs and investment that has torn apart by the crisis.

The financial industry and regulators have a critical role to play in this effort. The industry must work to promote financial literacy as a means of helping the public gain understanding and confidence in managing their own economic lives. I'm proud that NYSE Euronext has created the personal-finance website Money Sense and that that we support Operation Hope's literacy efforts, among other initiatives, and much more should and will be done by ourselves and many others across the business.

As regulators implement new reforms, they must strike a balance between mandating proper practices and fostering an environment of entrepreneurship and growth that creates new jobs.

And more than anything else, the industry must work to regain the public's trust. Those who are evaluating an investment or even a career in finance -- particularly those who historically have been underprivileged -- will walk away if they distrust the system, and we are all the poorer for that. So we must work to not just comply with the new rules and regulations, but to go beyond them: re-dedicate ourselves to ethical conduct, de-mystify the financial process, and re-connect with the community.

"Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning," Dr. King said in his speech. Exactly right: history never ends, we make it every day by what we do and what we fail to do. His words should animate us to re-double our efforts to create opportunity, the engine of our free society. The March for Jobs and Freedom did not end in 1963, and it's up to us to pick it up and move it forward today.

NYSE Euronext completes migration of NYSE and NYSE Amex to new data center (NYX)

Debunking "The Case Against Corporate Social Responsibility" (Richard Edelman)

mtvU and NYSE reunite to discover new entrepreneurs (NYX)

NYSE Liffe allows direct Hong Kong access (FT)

How blogging helps a venture capitalist do his job (A VC)

New ETFs on NYSE Arca: Alerian MLP and Market Vectors India Small-Cap Index

New York women -- including Muriel Siebert -- bust glass ceilings (Daily News)

NYSE Liffe launches new weekly options on single stocks (NYX)

NYSE Euronext changes fees to attract more trading of Nasdaq issues on NYSE Amex (Bloomberg)

The renewal of the NYSE Euronext-Amsterdam trading floor, with high-frequency traders (FT)

Managing microbursts of market data (LatencyStats.com)

NY1 marks the start of newscasting from NYSE (NY1)

And New York Financial Press, another "embedded" news organization at NYSE, marks the launch of its website (NYX)

In striking shift, small investors flee stocks (NYT) But Felix Salmon says the NYT is wrong about that (Reuters)

Let's kill all the stories that pronounce "The Death of..." (Technologizer; hat tip: Felix Salmon)

The expanding birthrate of web startups (A VC)

Chrystia Freeland on business journalism's problem: the systemic isn't sexy (NYT)

James Montier on the value of dividends (FT)

And my favorite for oddest bit of news for the week: "A Bell for Every Minute," a sound sculpture (!), that features the NYSE's bell among others (NYT)

NYSE Euronext completes migration of NYSE and NYSE Amex to new data center (NYX)

Debunking "The Case Against Corporate Social Responsibility" (Richard Edelman)

mtvU and NYSE reunite to discover new entrepreneurs (NYX)

NYSE Liffe allows direct Hong Kong access (FT)

How blogging helps a venture capitalist do his job (A VC)

New ETFs on NYSE Arca: Alerian MLP and Market Vectors India Small-Cap Index

New York women -- including Muriel Siebert -- bust glass ceilings (Daily News)

NYSE Liffe launches new weekly options on single stocks (NYX)

NYSE Euronext changes fees to attract more trading of Nasdaq issues on NYSE Amex (Bloomberg)

The renewal of the NYSE Euronext-Amsterdam trading floor, with high-frequency traders (FT)

Managing microbursts of market data (LatencyStats.com)

NY1 marks the start of newscasting from NYSE (NY1)

And New York Financial Press, another "embedded" news organization at NYSE, marks the launch of its website (NYX)

In striking shift, small investors flee stocks (NYT) But Felix Salmon says the NYT is wrong about that (Reuters)

Let's kill all the stories that pronounce "The Death of..." (Technologizer; hat tip: Felix Salmon)

The expanding birthrate of web startups (A VC)

Chrystia Freeland on business journalism's problem: the systemic isn't sexy (NYT)

James Montier on the value of dividends (FT)

And my favorite for oddest bit of news for the week: "A Bell for Every Minute," a sound sculpture (!), that features the NYSE's bell among others (NYT)