Tom Steinert-Threlkeld

Fidessa Group said it added foreign exchange trading to its buy-side workstation. The execution platform will provide advanced trading features for more than 1,300 currency pairs, the supplier of high-performance trading technology said.

BATS Chi-X Europe launched a service that will allow its customers to choose to clear trades at any of four European clearinghouses.

Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ research unit said it has developed a method of forecasting negative and positive earnings surprises of a magnitude of 5% or larger.

Direct Edge said it received approval to launch a market maker program for its two national exchanges.

The SEC accelerated approval of rule changes to allow the Chicago Board Options Exchange to acquire the National Stock Exchange at the end of December.

Growth in exchange-traded funds fell to 5.1% in 2011, from 27.5% in 2010 and 46.7% in 2009, according to figures released by the Exchange Traded Fund Association. The category with the biggest gains: fixed-income funds.

Investors pulled more than $125 billion out of mutual funds that invest long-term in stocks last year, according to the latest data released by the Investment Company Institute. Of that, $5.2 billion got pulled in the week leading up to New Year’s Eve.

If you had the foresight to invest heavily for your clients in Pimco's 25-year zero coupon U.S. Treasury exchange-traded bond fund last year, they would have realized a 51.9% return on their investment. The fund was the best-performing exchange-traded fund in 2011.

The operators of the Chicago Board Options Exchange said its futures exchange achieved record volume in 2011, based on its fear index.

Tuesday evening’s rush hour saw about 100 members of the Occupy Wall Street movement jam Grand Central Terminal at the foot of the Apple store, causing general confusion and moderate delay for commuters trying to reach its tracks.

You never know what to expect. But events of 2011 gave plenty of clues for what lies ahead in 2012, as trading firms and exchanges speed up and beef up.

Trading on the New York Stock Exchange in the common stock of the parent company of American Airlines will be halted after next Wednesday.

From Deutsche Boerse trying to acquire NYSE Euronext to the 10-microsecond trading cycle, here are the Top 10 Stories of 2011 affecting the technology and operations of capital markets as measured—in large part—by your viewership.

Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext said they have decided to push back the deadline for completing their merger until March 31.

With approval from the U.S. Justice Department in hand and approval from the European Commission still to be achieved, NYSE Euronext is looking for a period of relative quiet through the end of the year on its quest to merge with Deutsche Boerse.

The merger of NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Boerse has been cleared on the New York side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext have offered to cap fees on trading in their European derivatives contracts for three years in their last-ditch effort to get their $9 billion merger cleared by the European Union.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said that the former controller of accounts at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities pled guilty to four counts of falsifying records.

The FBI said it had 2,500 active corporate and securities fraud investigations under way at the end of its 2011 fiscal year.

Bonds.com Group said it raised $16.6 million from a group of investors that includes an entrepreneur that created the first hedge fund in Beirut, Lebanon.