We're also in the dark about price, but given it's aimed at business users, it probably won't be cheap.

ENGADGET

Moreover, dark clouds are now swirling over the oil and gas price jewels as well.

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Obviously, price discovery on the mainstream market, without dark pools information, becomes inefficient.

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In-car navigation, voice recognition, and MP3 support were still the stuff of science fiction in those dark days (particularly at the four-digit asking price), and the whole thing was doomed to a geeky, spendy niche.

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Even the bright spots had dark shadows: He married 22-year-old Shannon Price in 2007, but the marriage hit the rocks before they had celebrated their first anniversary.

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"What matters, in terms of the deal, is where our share price is in late September and early October, not in the dark days of August, " Barclays President Bob Diamond told the Financial Times.

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Share price is up, and morale is climbing out of its deep, dark cave.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission has officially encouraged the creation of dark pools to compete with the dominant NYSE and Nasdaq exchanges to offer the best price competition.

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Dark pools are known for cutting costs as some venues allow trading at the midpoint between the bid and the ask price.

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"The concern is if enough volume and order flow gets diverted into dark markets, at some point we would ask whether you would have reached a tipping point at which the public price discovery from displayed markets is being hurt, " said Jamie Brigagliano, co-director of the SEC's trading and markets division.

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