This will allow the institutional investors that dominate the bond market to trade directly with each other through a sophisticated order-matching system, operated under the auspices of the Boston Stock Exchange.

ECONOMIST: E-bonds, licensed to kill

"There's sort of concern in the industry that if you had only one or two players in the marketplace, that some of the pricing competitiveness wouldn't be there, " says Boston Stock Exchange Chairman Michael Curran.

FORBES: Why regional exchanges are heating up.

Driven by a desire to get bigger in the exploding options market, rival Nasdaq in 2007 struck deals to buy the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, the Boston Stock Exchange and Stockholm-based OMX (this last deal is being done with Borse Dubai).

FORBES: NYSE Looks For Options

"We're pleased they're going to repropose" amendments, says Susan Milligan, senior vice president of government relations for Options Clearing, the clearing house for the major options exchanges, including the Chicago Board Options Exchange, American Stock Exchange, Boston Options Exchange and International Securities Exchange.

FORBES: Option Markets Make A Racket

Meanwhile, Citi, Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse and Fidelity Brokerage are working with the Boston Options Exchange to form the Boston Equities Exchange, another new electronic stock exchange that is supposed to be up and running some time this year.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Meanwhile, Citi, Lehman Brothers (nyse: LEH - news - people ), Credit Suisse and Fidelity Brokerage are working with the Boston Options Exchange to form the Boston Equities Exchange, another new electronic stock exchange that is supposed to be up and running some time this year.

FORBES: A New Kind Of Exchange

The moment of silence also was recognized on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and in Boston, where lawmakers were shaken by the violent attack on a legislator thousands of miles away.

WSJ: A Silent Moment, From Washington to Space Station

In America, big investment banks recently took big stakes in the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, and are investing in a new, all-electronic Boston exchange in the hope of countering the NYSE's power.

ECONOMIST: Good times rarely last