Instinet Tops Celent's Best Execution Study; Pure Agency-Broker Ranks No. 1 for Nasdaq Trading Based on Price Improvement and Execution Speed, Besting Various Brokers, Exchanges and Alternative Trading Systems

Business Wire, Jan 9, 2006

NEW YORK -- Instinet, a global equities execution agent, has been selected by Celent as the best execution venue for Nasdaq listed stocks, according to the research and consulting firm's recently released study, "Execution Quality in the U.S. Equities Markets" (http://www.celent.com/PressReleases/20051221/ExecQuality.htm).

The study examined the execution quality reports--or "Dash 5 Reports"--from over 190 market participants. More than four billion orders of various sizes, types and scenarios from the top 25 venues were reviewed, with the final rankings relying equally on execution speed and level of price improvement, both in terms of frequency and degree.

"At Instinet, our sole focus is to provide our global client base with the best possible equity trade execution, regardless of market circumstances," said CEO Ed Nicoll. "We're extremely pleased to receive this validation from Celent."

"With this study, we refined our approach to best execution measurement, particularly in how price improvement is analyzed," said Octavio Marenzi, Celent founder and CEO and author of the study. "According to the study, Instinet provided the best execution quality for Nasdaq-listed securities."

In addition to this best execution ranking from Celent, Instinet has long been recognized for its execution quality in large size block trades, small trades and small-cap securities trading by the Plexus Group. According to Plexus, Instinet ranked No. 1 in "value-added," a measure of execution quality, for all block trades from 10,000 shares to 50,000 shares for the past six consecutive quarters. Similar studies evidenced that Instinet delivered better "value-added" execution quality for its clients' smaller trades, less than 2,000 shares, and ranked No.1 in execution quality for trading small-cap stocks (less than $1 billion).

About Instinet

Instinet, a global equities execution agent, provides the trading expertise, primary source research and advanced technology necessary to successfully interact with more than 40 worldwide securities markets. Acting solely as an agent for its customers, which include international mutual funds, insurance companies, pension funds and hedge funds, Instinet helps improve institutional investment performance and lower overall trading costs through its various front end trading systems, crossing networks and algorithms. The company, which is majority owned by Silver Lake Partners, is headquartered in New York and maintains offices in North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. For more information, please visit www.instinet.com.

(C)2006 Instinet, LLC. All rights reserved. INSTINET is a registered service mark in the United States and in other countries throughout the world. Instinet, LLC is a member of NASD/SIPC and is branded as Instinet, The Institutional Broker.