This week ABN AMRO Bank and Fortis Bank Nederland announced the completion of their legal merger, NYSE Euronext and MICROFIS partnered to create 'responsible finance market segment', Chi-X Japan launch was approved with trading to begin July 29th, and Equiduct announced a price promotion to run until the end of December.

Meanwhile SmartPool announced record growth during Q2, with its best monthly performance to date in Italy and Germany, and Turquoise continued its own recent growth, leading the European dark pool race for the first time in June.

Advent and SuperDerivatives agreed to provide pricing and analytics services to Geneva® clients, Finamex announced a new proximity DMA offering, Bloomberg launched its Derivatives Valuation Service for OTC derivatives and to assist market transparency, and Paradice Investment Management went live on ConvergEx's Eze OMS.

New tools, gadgets and widgets this week have included Saxo Bank's launch of a new suite of free Forex widgets, the addition of New in-built dashboards to the FRSGlobal product suite, and Deutsche Börse's expansion of online services for investors with a new iPhone app.

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Current vacancies on the Automated Trader Jobs Page include the following:

Equity Quant Analyst

Senior C++ Exchange/ECN Connectivity Expert

Senior C++/Linux Developer - High Frequency Hedge Fund, Hong Kong

Senior C++ Commodities Developer

Architect - Global Equities