[ These guys are building a very cool, cross-exchange tool. It constantly keeps track of the bids and asks on a number of exchanges letting you send your business to where the prices are best. It's fascinating to watch the screen update the quotes in real time. This kind of semi-automated, trading assistance is bound to become more and more prevalent. I think Lava Trading is doing some of the most interesting stuff around. -Peter] Baltimore Digital Commerce Society Tuesday October 2, 12:30 Speaker: Richard Korhammer, CEO of Lava Trading (www.lavatrading.com) Topic: Networks as Markets-- Why Exchanges are Becoming Virtual Richard Korhammer is the CEO of LavaTrading, one of the startup companies in New York diving into cross-market arbitrage. Their network links together all of the important market makers in ECNs and keeps track of all bids and offers. Buyers and sellers using the technology automatically get pointers to the best price possible. Traders with large blocks of stock do substantially better because Lava Trading will break up their block to match it with the best price available across all of the markets. This cross-market arbitrage improves liquidity for the market and makes it simpler for traders with large blocks of stock to wade into the marketplace without leaving a wake. In his talk, Korhammer will explore how fast networking and sophisticated servers can supplement and potentially replace the old fashioned stock exchange. Traders won't need to come to one place or one exchange to search for the best price because the network can constantly sort through all buyers and sellers. Korhammer believes that adding intelligence to the network and the servers supporting is more efficient than requiring traders to manually manage an otherwise complicated marketplace. Will these cross-exchange tools supplant the exchange? Will they eventually become the exchange? Will the disintermediation eventually make all trading a transparent event? Location: 11 West Mount Vernon Place, Baltimore, MD Directions: The Engineering Society lies in the shadow of Baltimore's Washington monument in the center of town. From downtown, take Charles St north to the monument. The Society is to the left on Monument Street. From the north, take 83 south to Maryland Avenue exit. Follow Maryland Avenue south until Monument Street. The Society is to the left. Or look at this map: http://maps.yahoo.com/py/maps.py?BFCat=&Pyt=Tmap&newFL=Use+Address+Below&add r=11+Mount+Vernon+Place&csz=Baltimore%2C+MD+21201&country=us&Get%07Map=Get+M ap Cost: $14 for a lunch buffet Questions: pcw@flyzone.com