“If the mergers announced last week go through, NYSE Euronext, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, will be acquired for $8.2 billion by IntercontinentalExchange, or ICE, an electronic operator of markets for derivatives and commodities, while Knight Capital Group, an electronic trading firm, will be sold for $1.4 billion to Getco, a privately held firm that has been a leader in high-frequency trading.

Both mergers reflect the demise of traditional stock-exchange trading. The equities market has been eclipsed by the global market in derivatives, and human traders have been increasingly replaced by computers programmed to profit from split-second price anomalies.”

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