Discussion.

The article presents commentary from Ananth Madhavan about a paper written by Kumar Venkataraman entitled "Automated Versus Floor Trading: An Analysis of Execution Costs on the Paris and New York Exchanges," which appeared in the August, 2001 issue of the "Journal of Finance." In that paper Venkataraman concluded that automated stock exchanges could not yet match the benefits afforded by floor traders on traditional exchanges. The author of the current paper raises questions about some of Venkataraman's interpretations.