From the editor.

The long-simmering debate between the specialist system of trading stocks and all-electronic venues hasn't ended, even though market experts see trading becoming ever-more electronic. Technology and the Securities and Exchange Commission's proposed "trade-through" rule revisions are pushing capital markets toward fully electronic order and settlement, writes Gregory J. Millman in our cover story.

But this isn't a story about the demise of the specialist system or its biggest proponent, the New York Stock Exchange. Millman explores the development of electronic stock trading, the phenomenon of dual listing and the electronic trading of bonds, which he says might eventually mean more to companies than stock trading. And, he concludes that there may always be a place for human intervention in the trading process.

Jim Collins has introduced millions of readers to terms such as "getting the right people on the bus" and "level 5 leadership." The best-selling author and business researcher, who will be a keynote speaker at FEI's Summit in May, spoke to Managing Editor Ellen M. Heffes about his current (and always evolving) views about corporate leadership and some unsettling recent trends.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The elusive nature of the "next thing" in technology, argues investment manager and writer Peter Cohan, is keeping a lot of cash on the sidelines. But financial executives yearn for applications that would help them do their jobs more quickly and efficiently, and Cohan looks at three distinct new technologies that could do that, and in the process get companies to spend more heavily again on applications.

Private placements are a long-established way of raising capital for small companies--and, in a different way, for larger public companies. "Capital Plenishment" provides something of a primer on the market (including a glossary) and thoughts from attorneys, investment advisers and other specialists about the state of private placements.

What a legion of consultants has been predicting is coming true: Private companies are voluntarily adopting some Sarbanes-Oxley practices aimed squarely at their bigger public cousins. Working with several professors, Financial Executives Research Foundation examined private companies' attitudes toward the law and the decisions several companies made about why to apply it to their own businesses.

The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, one of those giant omnibus bills with seemingly something for everyone, had something specific in mind for U.S.-based multinationals--a provision to repatriate foreign profits at a sharply reduced rate for a single tax year of their choosing. Two tax specialists at KPMG LLP detail the provision and how companies can take advantage of it.

Outsourcing has faded a bit from the headlines these days, but that doesn't mean that companies are shying from it--on the contrary. Two attorneys from Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel offer a useful list of pointers and caveats for companies to keep in mind when they sign business process outsourcing (BPO) contracts.

Elsewhere in this issue, Grant Thornton LLP Chief Executive Ed Nusbaum argues that the larger firms just below the level of the Big Four are qualified to take on much of their work; MaryAnne Watson, a healthcare consultant, points out the potential cost-saving benefits of healthcare eligibility audits; and Ellen Heffes talks to Linda Thomsen, deputy director of the SEC's enforcement division, about ongoing enforcement issues and the division's stepped-up activity.