Nasdaq faces up to identity crisis

At the Securities Industry Association’s fourth annual market structure conference in June, representatives of Nasdaq, the ECNs and the NYSE sat under the glittering chandeliers of New York’s Grand Hyatt slinging mud at each other.

Much to the bemusement of many in the audience of investors, traders, lawyers and journalists who witnessed this spectacle, the keynote speaker, Bob Greifeld, Nasdaq’s new chief executive, said: “Internalization is a confusing term and what it really means is competition.