Spanish Bang Introduces Computer Assisted Trading

Last month's deregulation of Spanish securities markets was the first official step toward integration of the nation's four stock exchanges, whose pricing anomalies and antiquated trading methods and settlement procedures have made the market one of the least efficient in Western Europe.

Key to the success of "El Big Bang," as the on-going reorganization has been dubbed, was the April introduction of a centralized automated trading system that will effectively create a fifth market for large and