Big firms chip away at exchanges

The big boys of Wall Street have long had issues with the NYSE and Nasdaq. Executions can't get fast enough, nor cheap enough, nor big enough, nor anonymous enough to suit them. That's how it has been historically anyway. The latest indication that the firms are more than willing to invest in alternatives: Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS and Citigroup have teamed up to launch BIDS, or Block Interest Discovery Service. Block trades are one area where people expect minimal execution costs. We'll see whether this takes off. There is still room for innovation in this arena. We'll see how it fares, but it seems to have a built-in flow of orders.

For more on the new service:
- Here's an update from TheStreet.com