Effective, August 1, 2008 the New York Stock Exchange will eliminate the Exceptional Message Fee of $0.01 per exceptional system message. This fee was originally introduced to help supplement the cost of adding additional capacity to the Exchange's trading systems. The elimination of the EMF reflects a continuing effort by the NYSE to maintain a cost effective, value-added execution offering for our customers.

Rule Filing SR-NYSE-2008-64

The NYSE is postponing the previously announced industry wide contingency trading test, which was originally planned for August 9, 2008. This was to be a comprehensive test, allowing participants to test all components of continency trading, however we determined that many firms were not yet ready to do this by the original test date. To allow firms more time to prepare, the August 9th contingency exercise will be delayed until October 25th. Details about this test will be sent out about a month prior to the test.

NYSE Business Contingency Update Memo

The SEC has extended it's emergency Order to enhance investor protections against "naked" short selling through EDT August 12th. The Order targeted 19 securities in a July 15th amendment that has been in effect since Monday, July 21 and had been scheduled to terminate at 11:59 EDT on Tuesday, July 29, 2008. The SEC has announced that the Order will not be extended beyond the new August 12th expiration date.

The New York Stock Exchange is rolling out two new technologies that, respectively, give brokers on the NYSE trading floor the ability to trade algorithmically, and strengthen the brokers’ ability to locate large sources of liquidity.
NYSE News Release

The NYSE New Market Model Initiative is on track to begin roll out in late August or early September. See the updated Rule Filing for additional details, and if you haven't yet, see "Evolution of the NYSE Market Model" for an Initiative overview.
Rule Filing SR-NYSE-2008 Amendment No. 1

At the closing of the merger between NYSE Euronext and the American Stock Exchange, the name of the American Stock Exchange will be changed to NYSE Alternext U.S. On a specified date following that closing, trading in NYSE Alternext listed securities will be migrated to 11 Wall Street and integrated onto the NYSE Trading Platform. The Market Data stream will print all NYSE Alternext Securities trades and quotes to Tape B as “A”, since NYSE Alternext U.S. and NYSE will continue to be separate registered securities exchanges. Member Firms are being advised in advance so that they can prepare for changes in both trading and post trading systems.

Amex Trading System Integration Notice
Amex Post Trade System Integration Notice

The NYSE today will introduce NYSE Order Imbalances, a rich, new data product that will increase the transparency of the NYSE's daily open and close, the two most critical periods of the trading day.