Nasdaq Delays SuperSoes System to May at Earliest
Washington, Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The Nasdaq Stock Market
delayed installation of a speedier trading platform for the third
time following testing problems, a Nasdaq official said.
Nasdaq's automated SuperSoes system, which is due to handle
about half the volume from the overburdened SelectNet system, was
originally scheduled to go into effect in March 2000. Now, it
won't begin until May of this year at the earliest, Nasdaq senior
vice president Dean Furbush said.
``This means that we don't get to move as fast to a more
efficient way of trading,'' Furbush said in an interview.
Tests this weekend showed that SuperSoes, which is
temporarily to become Nasdaq's main trading platform, would have
technical problems shortly after the market opens in the morning,
Furbush said. Problems also surfaced in trying to coordinate the
systems among Nasdaq and its dealers and vendors, he said.
Nasdaq, the second largest U.S. stock market, has delayed
SuperSoes at least until after the market fully converts to
decimal stock prices in April.
Nasdaq will suspend testing of SuperSoes now and resume it in
April, Furbush said.
The delay of the scheduled Jan. 22 implementation date was
reported in today's Wall Street Journal.
SelectNet was plagued by backlogs and delays last spring.
SuperSoes reduces the number of messages that need to be sent
between potential buyers and sellers, and increases the rate at
which orders are filled, Furbush said.
SuperSoes is to provide a bridge to Nasdaq's SuperMontage
platform, due to go into effect by early next year, which will
centralize display of customer orders by showing three of the best
quotes for any stock.
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