CSE NewsJan 09, 2007

Market Update

Pure Trading Announces Final Market Launch Date

TORONTO, January 9, 2007 – Canadian Trading and Quotation System Inc, (CNQ) is pleased to announce the revised launch schedule of Pure Trading’s continuous auction market. Industry production tests with key vendors and other marketplaces will take place on January 13th, and then twice again in February. The auction market will go live to participating members on March 9, 2007 and will begin with 3 TSX-listed stocks for a two week period prior to the orderly roll-out of the remaining listed securities.

The move comes in response to numerous requests for additional opportunities to test trading and order management systems in the new Canadian multi-market environment. Additionally, to avoid conflicting with the investment dealers’ already busy RRSP season next month, Pure Trading has decided to host two additional industry production testing dates during the month of February and will continue to provide daily access to its systems for direct point to point testing from the vendor and dealer communities. This final date of March 9, 2007, will be a hard launch date as this new schedule should afford more than sufficient time to accommodate the needs of the various stakeholders.

“Our members have been making every effort to revise their processes to comply with best execution rules for the launch of Pure Trading. Today’s announcement to defer the launch of the auction market will be well received. Given the level and complexity of changes required to our member firms’ internal processes and technology, the delay is wise: it will allow firms to test and enhance their new processes before launch,” said Ian Russell, President and CEO, Investment Industry Association of Canada. “This new schedule reflects our basic objective of providing a markedly superior service in a manner sensitive to the needs of our customers. This is a substantial collective technology endeavour and we believe this schedule is the most responsible and prudent approach to delivering the benefits of a multi-marketplace trading environment,” said Ian Bandeen, Vice-Chairman and CEO, CNQ and Pure Trading.

Pure Trading continues to offer its free, unlimited cross printing facility to participating members. This facility permits the reporting of cross trades to Pure Trading’s trade tape from 9:30am to 5pm EST on regular trading days.

Pure Trading provides a better, faster and more cost efficient alternative for the trading of Canadian equity securities and received regulatory approval from the Ontario Securities Commission on June 14, 2006. It is the second major initiative of CNQ, which launched the first new Canadian stock exchange in over 70 years in 2003 and which continues to operate smoothly while growing steadily. There are currently over 40 Canadian investment dealers approved for direct access to both Pure Trading and the CNQ stock exchange. For more information on how to become a participating dealer or the recently announced pricing, please visit the website at www.puretrading.ca.

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Contact:
Lida Preyma
Business Development & Marketing
Pure Trading
(416) 572-2000 x2285
[email protected]

www.puretrading.ca