sto and total to further collaborate, page-43

Hi ray,

They're known as centre point crossing trades.

My understanding is they were introduced with direct market access reforms from a year or two ago the ASX brought in. You know...the reforms that 'add liquidity to the market'.

This is ASX-speak for "we get most of our income from algorithmic trades so let's allow hedge funds and the like to co-locate their servers in/on the exchange and tell the punters it's in their best interests"!

So instead of price crossovers at, say, 0.5c intervals it will allow for a median price between the bid and the offer (e.g bid 89.5, offer 90, then CPXT can occur at 89.75). My understanding is both the buyer and the seller need direct market access and have the functionality to CPXT.

I don't really see a major problem with it other than it's a policy that encourages trading profits to be made from smart computer programs rather than having any relation to the value of the underlying security. You've got to wonder when/where it will stop!